Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World. Some Recent Contributions by the British Museum to the Appreciation of and Research into Afghan Cultural Heritage

Description

In 2011 the British Museum held a highly successful exhibition entitled Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World (3 March-17 July). This included over 200 objects on loan from the National
Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul and now on international tour. The exhibition attracted over 120,000 visitors, was extended for a fortnight owing to the public demand and reached over 612 million people across the world through the international media. The great success of this exhibition helped ensure that these important objects remained on tour, the museum’s interpretative
concept was adopted by the next venue, the Ethnographic Museum in Stockholm, and additional venues have been agreed in Trondheim and Seoul. Exhibitions such as this create opportunities.
New scientific research was carried out on some of the pieces and objects feared lost which had been stolen from the National Museum during the civil war (1992-1994) were acquired and presented by a private individual and specially displayed in London prior to their return to Kabul. Further work is in progress at the British Museum on the cataloguing of other objects illegally exported from Afghanistan and seized within the United Kingdom and this work provides a model of collaboration between governments.