Afghanistan's Priceless Treasures Hidden 28 Years Ago

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/06/AR2006120601895.html?referrer=email




On Display, The Fruits Of Afghan Altruism
Priceless Treasures Hidden 28 Years Ago

By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, December 7, 2006; A18



PARIS, Dec. 6 .. on the eve of the Soviets' 1979 invasion, a small group of Afghans put love of art and country above all else and hid many of their country's cherished national treasures. These museum guards, curators and other antiquities lovers became known as the "keyholders" because they held the keys, literally and figuratively, to a priceless fortune in art, including 22,000 pieces of gold known as the Bactrian Hoard. And they pledged never to give up their secret.

Years turned into decades, and Afghanistan became a failed state, the battleground of a succession of warlords, drug lords, tribal chiefs, terrorists and Islamic fundamentalists. They included Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, which ordered the destruction of any art with a human likeness and in March 2001 blew up two giant stone Buddhas in Bamian.

Kabul became a killing field, and entire families lived on less than $1 a day. The National Museum in Kabul was bombed and looted, and rumors circulated that its treasures were fetching millions on the international black market. One keyholder was tortured, international art officials say. Another survived by selling potatoes in the Kabul market. Through it all, they kept their secret.

On Wednesday, the fruits of their silence went on display at the Guimet Museum in Paris. It began exhibiting more than 220 artifacts from the Afghan National Museum, including masterpieces of gold and ivory that have never been seen in public and that a few years ago were believed lost forever.

I have been following for years the struggle of a small group of
Afghanis to hold on to their priceless heritage. They have been
smuggling items to Switzerland for many years now.

By having a showing of these priceless treasures in Paris, it is my
fervent hope that the world will become aware of the current situation
in Afghanistan and its glorious past. Maybe it will help in stemming
a resurgence of the Taliban.

Now what I really hope for is that the current dig at Bamyan will find
the monastery where the 1000 foot sleeping Buddha is supposed to be.
It will go a long way in healing the heartbreak of the distruction of
the two giant Buddhas by the Taliban.

It is horrendous what has been done to both Afghanistan and Iraq.

But to distroy their heritage, as been done mainly in Iraq, is beyond
the pale. This, from XIANS who claim to be heirs of Abraham, who came
from UR..........