Antiquity

• The Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972, defined “antiquity” as “any coin, sculpture, painting, epigraph or other work of art or craftsmanship; any article, object or thing detached from a building or cave; any article, object or thing illustrative of science, art, crafts, literature, religion, customs, morals or politics in bygone ages; any article, object or thing of historical interest” that “has been in existence for not less than one hundred years”
• For “manuscript, record or other documents which is of scientific, historical, literary or aesthetic value”, this duration is “not less than 75 years.”

International conventions say

• The UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property defined “cultural property” as the property designated by countries having “importance for archaeology, prehistory, history, literature, art or science.

Indian laws say

• Item-67 of the Union List, Item-12 of the State List, and Item-40 of the Concurrent List of the Constitution deal with the country’s heritage.
• Antiquities (Export Control) Act 1947 to ensure that “no antiquity could be exported without a license.
• Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1958 to provide for the preservation of ancient and historical monuments and archaeological sites and remains of national importance, for the regulation of archaeological excavations and for the protection of sculptures, carvings and other like objects.
• The Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972 (AATA) to regulate the export trade in antiquities and art treasures.

Steps undertaken by the government for protecting antiquities

• -Before Independence, an Antiquities (Export Control) Act had been passed in April 1947 to ensure that “no antiquity could be exported without license.”
• -Item-67 of the Union List, Item-12 of the State List, and Item-40 of the Concurrent List of the Constitution deal with the country’s heritage.
• – In 1958, The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act was enacted.
• -The government also enacted the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972 (AATA). It has been implemented since 1976. Under AATA, “Every person who owns, controls or is in possession of any antiquity” shall register such antiquity before the registering officer “and obtain a certificate in token of such registration.”

India can bring back antiquities from other countries

• There are three categories of antiquities. These are a)antiquities taken out of India pre-independence; b) Those which were taken out since independence until March 1976, i.e. before the implementation of AATA; and c) Antiquities taken out of the country since April 1976.
• For items in the first two categories, requests have to be raised bilaterally or on international fora. Antiquities in the second and third categories can be retrieved easily by raising an issue bilaterally with proof of ownership and with the help of the UNESCO convention.

Challenges in Retrieving Stolen Idols and Artefacts

• Non-availability of FIR: According to the UNESCO Convention, the first thing to prove the ownership of the artefacts of the country is the complaint report (FIR in India). But in many cases, there is no FIR in India.
• Lack of proper data: Since Independence, only 486 artefacts have been reported missing from the monuments preserved by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). But there is a large gap between what is reported as missing and what is surfacing now in foreign museums.
• The inefficiency of the ASI: a)2013 report of CAG highlighted that the agency “has no vigilance or monitoring cell to function as a deterrence against theft of antiquities”, b) the 2005 report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee highlighted that the ASI’s inability to access the latest technology.