[MSN] Afghan artifacts to return home.

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Afghan artifacts to return home
March 13, 2007


PARIS --  A collection of 1,300 Afghan artifacts that have been kept in
Switzerland since 1999 will be handed over to the National Museum in Kabul
Friday, the UN culture agency UNESCO said. 

The ethnographic and archeological objects were housed at the Afghanistan
Museum-in-Exile in Bubendorf, Switzerland, which was set up by a private
foundation and is now closed. 

The return of the works received from private donors is financed by the
Switzerland's National Commission to UNESCO, the Swiss foreign affairs
department, and the German defense ministry, which is responsible for the
transport. 

"Repatriating this collection ... means giving back to Afghanistan a part of
its memory," said UNESCO director-general Koichiro Matsuura. "The country
needs this to reconstruct its identity." 

UNESCO has contributed to the reconstruction on the National Museum of
Afghanistan, which was looted under the Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001,
and reopened in October 2004. 

http://www.metimes.com/