Historic cultural artifacts seized from smugglers in the United States have been returned to Afghanistan.
According to the ECO Cultural Institute, quoting iFilm2, 33 items of historical artifacts returned from the United States to Afghanistan were handed over to the Director of the National Museum by the representative of the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mohammad Tahir Zahir, Acting Minister of Information and Culture of Afghanistan, at the ceremony of handing over historical monuments to the National Museum, called on the people of this country to cooperate with this ministry in the protection and preservation of historical monuments.
At the handover ceremony, the Acting Minister of Information and Culture noted that the 33 items had been confiscated from smugglers in the United States and returned to Kabul through the Afghan Embassy in Washington.
During the wars of the 1990s, more than 100,000 historical monuments of the National Museum of Afghanistan were looted and now a large number of historical monuments and antiquities of the country are in danger.
Mohammad Fahim Rahimi, the director of the National Museum of Afghanistan, gave information about the artifacts and said: “These artifacts include stone and clay vessels and sculptures, some of which may be related to the ‘Buddhist’, ‘Hindu’ and ‘Islamic’ periods.”
He added: “More studies are needed to identify the authenticity and antiquity of these works.”
The director of the National Museum of Afghanistan said: “Since 2002, 10,500 historical artifacts have been returned to the country from abroad.”
At the end of the ceremony, the Head of Cultural Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan, in the presence of the Head of the Ministry of Information and Culture, handed over the mentioned works to the Director of the National Museum.