Isolated on the southwestern outskirts of Kabul, in the burned and pockmarked Darulaman Palace, an iconic image of the Soviet occupation and Afghanistan’s brutal civil war, sits the National Museum of Afghanistan. Two stone inscriptions on the gates greet visitors, one in English, the other in Dari: “A nation stays alive when its culture stays alive.”

Walking through the halls of the National Museum, amidst the stretch of empty spaces, there is a palpable sense of excitement. Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, UNESCO has organized and coordinated efforts to transform the museum from a dilapidated, bombed-out state to a fully-functioning cultural institution. The walls are freshly painted blue and white, and workers move about diligently plastering holes and fixing doors.

Flanking the main staircase to the second floor are two display cases with several seated Bodhisattva statues, representations of Buddhist enlightenment, from the 4th-6th century AD, still under a plastic tarp. On the first landing, behind a locked door, is an impressive room full of carved wooden statues from Nuristan in northern Afghanistan. Two figures—a man and a woman—atop a wooden staff, locked in an embrace speak to Afghanistan’s rich past. And perhaps to its future.

But most of the displays are empty. In 1988, 41,000 pieces from the museum, including the famous Bactrian gold treasure, were transferred to a secure location under the Presidential Palace. The rest of the collection was looted in the 1990s during the fight for control of Kabul following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.

An alternative museum in exile

In 1998, in response to the continued destruction and looting of the country, the Northern Alliance and Taliban together asked Paul Bucherer, Director of the Foundation Biblioteca Afghanica in Switzerland, to help establish a museum in exile. Since October, 2000, the Afghanistan Museum-In-Exile, established in Bubendorf, Switzerland under an agreement with UNESCO, became a repository for gathering scattered pieces of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage.

“Even members of the Taliban have brought instruments here, which they got from their parents. They didn’t want to destroy them,” says Bucherer while packing the collection into boxes for the transfer to Kabul.

Over the past six years, the collection has grown to approximately 1,400 archeological pieces and ethnographic works—including carpets, jewelry, chests and musical instruments—donated mostly from private collectors.

In September 2006, UNESCO agreed to a request from the Afghan Government to repatriate these objects to the restored National Museum.

“It is a good beginning,” says Omara Khan Masoudi, Director-General at the National Museum, who is organizing an exposition of the artifacts in Kabul later this spring. “I hope other countries that have objects looted from the museum can help us return these pieces.”

In 2003, Masoudi visited the Museum-in-Exile and recognized four objects that had been looted from the National Museum. The National Museum’s ethnographic collection was also destroyed in the 1990s, so Masoudi welcomes the ethnographic objects from the Museum-In-Exile as an important step in rebuilding the collection.

“During the 30 years of war, half of the population of Afghanistan was driven into exile and lost their belongings,” say Bucherer. “They know their culture only through the stories of their parents and grandparents. At least half of the objects you no longer find in Afghanistan. Since the shops and tools were also destroyed, the Afghans need these objects as a pattern to renovate and make new ones, they are necessary to help rebuild the consciousness of the country.”

The time is right

With an increasing number of Taliban attacks in the south marking the beginning of a spring offensive, returning the objects to the National Museum is not without risk. But Masoudi is convinced the time is right because “the security is better in Kabul.”

Masoudi sees the return of the objects from the Museum-in-Exile as a first step in a long process. “It is difficult, but the objects in our museum are very famous, everybody knows the pieces belong to the National Museum in Afghanistan.”

“It is the decision of the Afghan government,” says Shigeru Aoyagi, Director of UNESCO’s Kabul office. “We are supporting the government by helping build the cultural institutions.”
Aoyagi’s priorities are scheduling a major conference on the protection of artifacts* and helping the Ministry develop a comprehensive cultural policy.

“There needs to be external intervention to create a sense of pride,” he says. “Afghanistan’s diversity needs a show of strength to demonstrate the richness of the country. UNESCO’s role is vital in this process.”

“Culture is the central to the development of a peaceful democracy and can help unify people,” he adds. “It can say: this is Afghanistan, our plight, our people.”

* The second conference of the International Coordination Committee for the Protection of Artifacts, a session of the International Coordination Committee for the Safeguarding of Afghanistan Cultural Heritage