Stolen, smuggled, SOLD

The Indian government spends crores of rupees on the preservation of historical artefacts and sites, but looting is rampant, and the antiques smuggling market is said to have crossed the US$ 6 billion mark this year. The problem is that the ASI and the National Crime Record Bureau have no connect on the issue.

By Yatish Yadav

A bronze figurine of the Goddess Parvati, made in 1400 BC during the reign of King Harihara II and considered a masterpiece of the Vijayanagar dynasty, is on sale in New York. It is priced at a whopping Rs 3 crore. How did this invaluable bit of Indian history, which rightfully belongs in a national museum, become part of a private collection?

There are many other relics from different Indian dynasties also up for grabs in various clandestine "salesrooms" and bigtime auction houses. The "export" (read smuggling) and sale of antiques more than 100 years old is both banned and a criminal offence; but it is an "industry" that continues to thrive, and is leading to a leaching of the country's icons of history. Notwithstanding the fact that the government spending crores on the preservation of historical artefacts and sites, looting is rampant, and the market is said to have crossed the US$ 6 billion mark this year.

More than 4,000 Buddhist and other antiques were smuggled out of India in 2006 to museums and private collections abroad, thanks to the slack implementation of laws, the connivance of some authorities, and lack of genuine documentation that allows "exporters" to camouflage artefacts more than a century old. Historically important sites, and even loosely-guarded museums, have been major attraction for antique smugglers for decades now. In September 2006, 18 antique pieces were stolen from the well known Patna museum; while 17 were recovered by the Central Bureau of Investigation, one from AD 7-8 remains missing. Similarly, 200 antiques, including rare Jain statues, were recovered from Ahmedabad in April 2006, just as they were about to be smuggled out of country.

Says Jaiprakash Aggarwal, additional director, Patna museum, "The museum has now hired private security guards, apart from Bihar Police personnel, for protection. We are [building] new boundary walls and [installing] electronic surveillance equipment to protect the priceless works stored here."

Interpol considers art theft one of the most lucrative of international crimes, only a step behind the drug trade, transnational arms dealing, and money laundering. In its 2005 publication, the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) mentions 1,012 art theft cases; only 326 stolen antiques were recovered. Strangely enough, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) provides the data for only 13 thefts from inside Centrally-protected monuments during 2004-2006. The difference in data between the NCRB and the ASI suggests that not only is no single protocol for registering art thefts being followed but that the two organisations might also be out of contact with each other.

Says C Babu Rajiv, director general of ASI, "The number of theft cases has decreased over a period of time and our laws are adequate to deal with it." Now, the ASI plans to run acentralised databank of Indian antiquities.

"Even if the smugglers are selling antiques abroad, we actually have a problem in identifying their provenance, and without facts [to back us up] we cannot claim them as our property," says Babu Rajiv. "The lack of proper documentation adds more difficulty to our functioning."

The problem with Indian laws governing antique thefts is that they are extremely malleable. Most Indian heritage sites, such as Nalanda in Bihar, have long been recognised as the main hub of such activities. Under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act of 1958, anyone caught stealing from an ancient monument or archaeological site can be fined Rs 5,000 and imprisoned up to three months or both. This law is laughable in its punition, given that many stolen artefacts fetch more than Rs one crore each. On the other hand, the Antiquities Act 1972 proposes three years imprisonment for such crimes, and legal eagles often play the discrepancies between the two acts to get the guilty off the hook. Since many of these stolen antiquities find their way into the storerooms of international auction houses such as Christie's, Sotheby's and Bonham's, it becomes imperative that the Indian government pressure them, and the governments of the cities where their auctions are held, to take them to task.

While most stolen artefacts are sold on the blackmarket to buyers in the US and the European Union, some of them end up in the auction houses. As Andrea R Harbin, expert at the Institute of Archaeology, Iceland, says, "Everyone, including buyers and collectors, knows that most of the antique pieces are stolen and not properly documented." In fact, Russian Schoolroom, a Norman Rockwell painting stolen from a gallery in the St Louis suburb of Clayton more than three decades ago, was found in Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg's art collection, the US' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced on March 2, 2007. Early FBI estimates put the painting's value at Rs 3.5 crore.

Dr G T Shendey, director of antiquities, says, "Whenever we have identified any stolen pieces in auctions with proof of provenance, we have always asked the auction houses to withdraw it from the sale. But to acquire these pieces, sometimes the government has to shell out a lot of money. For the past few years, auction houses like Sotheby's have been sending us their catalogues for further processing."

To curb the menace, the FBI has set up an art theft department to recover and charge criminals for stolen art pieces. The Art Crime Team is coordinated through the FBI's Art Theft Program, located at FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC. Art Crime Team agents receive specialised training in art and cultural property investigations and assist in art-related investigations worldwide in cooperation with foreign law enforcement officials and FBI Legal Attaché offices. The Art Crime Team has recovered more than 850 items of cultural property worth more than US$ 65 million. Some other cases of painting theft abroad are now under the FBI scanner.

At least two Picasso paintings together worth several hundred crores were stolen from the house of the artist's granddaughter in Paris on March 1 this year. The paintings, Maya and the Doll and Portrait of Jacqueline, seemingly disappeared overnight. The Art Loss Register, which maintains the world's largest database on stolen, missing and looted art, lists 549 missing Picasso pieces, including paintings, lithographs, drawings and ceramics.

The world's largest auction house, Sotheby's, has been in the dock when some of its executives were caught abetting the smuggling of Indian antiques and putting them up for the bidding. There has been at least one high-profile nexus case between the auction house and Indian antique smuggler Vaman Ghiya. Looted Indian antique pieces had been featured in Sotheby's catalogue. Art theft investigator and writer Peter Watson says, "It's just the tip of the iceberg of the art theft market. There is evidence that old cities and their histories have been sold out with the help of auction houses and dealers." Realpolitik tried to contact Christie's, but the auction house did not respond.

Auction Websites like eBay are selling Indian antiques, in some instances keeping the sellers' identities private. The anonymity that the Internet affords and eBay's accommodative policy make it doubly difficult to investigate the provenance of art valuables. Recently, antique Indian palm leaves were up for sale for Rs 44 lakh. The marble statue of a god is available for Rs 3 lakh.

Says archaeological conservator Andrew C Clara, "The real problem with the Indian scenario is illiteracy and blindness towards the [country's] rich history. Smugglers know that a coin of the Gandhara period or a Buddha statue could very well fetch hundreds of crores in the world market. They involve local inhabitants to finish the job for a few hundred rupees." He was not nonplussed at the vast Indian antique collection in private galleries worldwide. "Without a systematic relationship between dealers based abroad and smugglers in India, such precious relics could not reach New York or London," he says.

"There is big loophole in the Customs department, which is the doorkeeper for these precious pieces," says Shendey. "The department is working half-heartedly and not even 50 per cent of stolen items have been recovered by Customs."

Shendey is organising classes and workshops for Customs officials, hoping to bring in awareness of culturally important relics. But, going by current indications and the fact that the government has long been trying to revamp the Customs department, that might well be akin to teaching drug traffickers about the downside of drug-taking.