Nepal Earthquake, no Opportunist Thieving of Cultural Property

“Immediately after the earthquake,
locals teamed up with army, police and
rescue workers to salvage the remains of all structures [...]" 

Art exposed

Earlier this year a serious earthquake struck Nepal. A total of 750 historical, cultural and religious monuments in 20 districts (including seven World Heritage Sites) were damaged by the April 25 earthquake and its aftershocks. Among them, 133 were completely destroyed while 617 were partially damaged. Nepali idols and sculptures are a major part of the Asian art black market and it was feared that after the earthquake, items might be taken from the ruins by opportunist thieves and sold. Intere3stingly, this seems not to have happened according to one report:

Quashing rumours that several idols and sculptures could have been smuggled out of the country from hundreds of damaged religious and cultural sites after the April earthquake, the Department of Archaeology said all items have been accounted for. “Not even a single part of our damaged monuments has been lost,” DoA spokesperson Ram Bahadur Kunwar said. “Although several temples have been damaged, our assessment found that their rubble has been kept safe in the local community and no significant object has been stolen.” Earlier, public was concerned that the earthquake provided an opportunity to art smugglers and antique dealers to abscond with valuables, a recurring incident in the country especially during and after the 1950s.

The DoA maintains detailed record of all temples, stupas and statues in the country as per the Ancient Monuments Preservation Rules of 1989 and the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act of 1956. The record consists of an inventory, along with pictures, of monuments in all 75 districts classified in three categories--national importance, regional importance and local importance.

Gaurav Thapa, 'Idols, sculptures of damaged sites safe: DoA', Kathmandu Post Dec 14, 2015