Excavating the Underground Trade in Buddhist Antiquities by Shahan Mufti

LETTER FROM PAKISTAN

SPOILS OF WAR Excavating the underground trade in Buddhist antiquities By Shahan Mufti

The auction catalogue is 134 pag- white debris on the pedestal. The vio- to a page in a private gallery’s cata- es long and weighs a full pound. Its lence done to the sculpture is stun- logue, “but I think it’s a fake!” The cover is glossy and thick, and its pages ning. (There are many heads of Lord other two gasp audibly and they all are sharp-edged enough to deliver a Buddha on display in the viewing begin talking at once about the scandal nasty paper cut. There are photo- gallery—I count nearly thirty—and of it all. The group falls silent when a graphs within of the nearly two hun- many larger sculptures in various tall man walks over and vigorously dred Asian objects on auction: an- states of amputation, including a four- shakes their hands. “So this is where cient clay pots, ceramic dishes, foot-tall Maitreya with both arms the big money’s sitting, huh?” he says, weapons, and miniature paintings. hacked off at the elbows.) his voice full of loud American charm. There is also a vast selection of sculp- Lot 112 was likely made between the “Should I just give up and go back tures. Some are wrathful gods, their third and fourth centuries a.d. in the home?” The men laugh uncomfortably. bronze teeth clenched in vengeance, ancient kingdom of Gandhara, whose It is soon obvious that the two hun- while others are more peaceful, with ruins litter the border between Pakistan dred or so chairs in the hall are not serenely drooping eyelids. Christie’s and Afghanistan. How exactly the head enough. A sizable crowd spills out the expects the afternoon to bring in ended up in the viewing gallery at door, and security men herd people away more than $3.5 million. Christie’s Manhattan branch, along from the entrance, mumbling about a In the viewing gallery, security guards with a good many other Gandharan fi re hazard. At ten minutes after the in black suits stand at every corner. treasures, is anybody’s guess. At some hour, a handsome man in a dark suit Glass display cabinets line the walls, point, Lord Buddha’s head was procured approaches the auctioneer’s dais and each attended by a pretty young woman by Julian Sherrier, a British dealer who gives it several fi rm taps with his gavel. in a black pencil skirt holding a walkie- has fought legal battles in both India The chatter instantly ceases. talkie. In front of me, a graying, heavily and the United States over his dubious “Good afternoon, ladies and gentle- bejeweled couple is waiting to examine holdings. Now Sherrier has decided to men,” he announces in another un- lot 112: a head of Lord Buddha. liquidate a large part of his collection— placeable European accent. “Wel- The stucco head, which has been and the head awaits a new owner. come to Christie’s.” ripped off its torso, is anticipated to As two o’clock approaches, I join the After he rattles off a few details fetch between $15,000 and $20,000. It trickle of people walking upstairs to the about sales tax and pickup locations, has been impaled on a thin shaft, and main auction fl oor. I enter the grand the bidding begins. All across the fl oor, Lord Buddha’s eyes are half shut. The space and take a seat along the back paddles are fl ying into the air. Hun- nose is angular and impressive, the lips wall. Next to me, three older men in dreds of telephone and Internet bids are curled at the edges, and the crum- suits are conversing in a cacophony of pour in. Lord Buddha’s head eventu- bling earlobes have left some powdery Euro-accented English. They have sev- ally sells for $43,750, much higher than eral catalogues among them and are the estimate. A small Gandharan coin Shahan Mufti is writing a book on the religious and cultural roots of modern Pakistan. His last spitefully dissecting them. goes for $4,375 to paddle 178, and a article for Harper’s Magazine, “Persian Gulf “He is asking six million dollars for seated Maitreya—one of the rare spec- View,” appeared in the February 2010 issue. this pair,” one of the men says, pointing imens in full possession of his limbs—

38 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / APRIL 2011

(38-44) Mufti final3cx2.indd 38 2/21/11 11:40 AAMM fetches six fi gures. When the east, the Sasanians from the auction ends three hours west; later, the Mongols pil- later, Christie’s has handily laged the region, and various beaten its own estimate, with Muslim armies wreaked fur- more than $6 million in sales. ther havoc. The Gandharan The anonymous attendees civilization, and much of its quietly fi lter out of the auction art, was consigned to the hall, and as the numbered rubble of war. paddles are returned, it is im- Conquering armies have possible to track the winners. always looted. At the turn of A short bald man in an ill- the fi rst millennium a.d., the fi tting tweed jacket, who was army of Mahmud Ghaznavi casting nervous glances at me returned to its South Asian all afternoon, noting my seat stronghold with legendary among the wealthy collectors, spoils from its periodic raids approaches me. We shake across the Indus. Napoleon’s hands, and he awkwardly in- troops ransacked their way troduces himself as a Paki- across Europe, and when the stani antiquities dealer. He emperor stood with his troops gives me a business card: “If at the gates of Rome in 1797, you like to do business some- he wrote: “We have now all time, I have many special that is beautiful in Italy, ex- items.” His eyes dart left and cept a few objects that re- right, and before I can say a main in Turin and Naples.” word, he has disappeared into Colonialism gave the the crowd at the door. The pillagers of Western Europe card lists a phone number and a second wind. Spanish address in Yokohama, Japan. conquistadors took the Az- There is a New York City tec gold; the British estab- phone number scribbled in lished their fl agship muse- red pen on the back. um in London and stocked Owning a piece of an- it with precious souvenirs other culture’s heritage from Benin, Egypt, Ghana, seems to feed some primor- Greece, and India. These dial urge. I had felt it in the badges of conquest were auction room. It was more than just came to Gandhara to subjugate it— ostentatiously displayed, and their greed or the excitement of acquiring but they also brought with them a value could never be measured in a beautiful object. To possess Lord powerful tradition of devotional mere pounds and shillings. After all, Buddha’s head, or even a bit of an- sculpture, which would long outlast they informed empires of tique small change, is to control a their tenure as occupiers. their own greatness. part of the civilization that created The Gandharan artisans who those objects. I wondered whether chiseled the Buddha’s image into Takht Bahi is a small town in the only way to truly understand living rock created the earliest- northwest Pakistan. It lies at the cen- this impulse is to trace such artifacts known physical representation of ter of the wide and green fl atland of back to their source—to observe the philosopher king. They also the Peshawar Valley, the cradle of them being pried loose from their produced thousands of sculptures in Gandharan civilization. The Hindu native lands. And today, perhaps schist, stucco, terra-cotta, and mar- Kush range rises to the north, the Hi- the best place to see that ble, and carved intricate narrative malayas to the east, and the Safed happening is Gandhara. reliefs chronicling the Buddha’s life. Koh range wraps around the west and In the process, they created a south, forming the border with Af- The Gandharans were a sophis- unique style of sculpture that meld- ghanistan. The Kabul River runs ticated people who had the misfor- ed the aesthetics of Greece and eastward through the plains, bringing tune of living among the Central Central Asia. water to tobacco and sugarcane fi elds. Asian mountain ranges that have By 50 b.c., the Greeks were gone, I was standing on a ridge outside for millennia been in the path of having been pushed out by the Parthi- town, near the ruins of a Buddhist various invading armies. Alexander ans. In subsequent centuries, many monastery where you can still fi nd the the Great, far from the fi rst of these more conquerors passed through face of Lord Buddha carved into the invaders, arrived around 330 b.c., Gandhara. The White Huns of Cen- crumbling walls. Along with a scatter- one hundred and fifty years after tral Asia attacked from the north; ing of other visitors, I had climbed up the Buddha’s death. The Greeks South Asian peoples invaded from the to watch the sun set. Most of my com-

Photograph of a sculpture found in the Buddhist monastery of Yusufzai depicting Pañcika in Kushan dress, holding a spear, and accompanied by children © The Trustees of the British Museum LETTER FROM PAKISTAN 39

(38-44) Mufti final3cx2.indd 39 2/21/11 11:40 AAMM panions were locals. Some, however, We drove down a side street and beautiful,” I said, trying to control my were refugees—among the thousands into a dusty clearing along the edge of sudden desire to own it. who had poured into Takht Bahi, a tobacco fi eld. We parked and strolled The son reached over and took it themselves just a fraction of the more down a series of narrow alleys until we from my hands. “It’s a fake. I just pulled than a million Pakistanis driven from reached a colony of small houses. The it out of the oven last week. I buried it their homes in the mountains by their large metal door to Zafar’s house for a few days to get the dirt in good. It nation’s clash with the Taliban. In the opened onto a living room big enough turned out well, don’t you think?” valley below the monastery, I saw a lake for a game of ping-pong. The walls were He briefl y inspected his handiwork of blue-green tents: a U.N. refugee decorated with photos and magazine before putting it back in the bag. He camp. Militants had begun quietly slip- cutouts showing the Masjid al-Haram then removed a small forearm of gray ping into the inevitable chaos of the in Mecca and some sculptures of the schist from the other bag. The forefi n- camps, and only a few days earlier, po- Buddha. An elderly man, Zafar’s father, ger and thumb were delicately touching lice had arrested fi ve suspects. was seated on the soft rug in the middle at the tips. “This is from a real Bud- There was no question that war had of the room. I shook hands with him. dha,” he said, handing it to me. “This once again come to Gandhara. The hills The old man was excited to hear I had is a Swat piece.” He waited a few mo- of the Waziristan tribal areas, where the come all the way from Islamabad. ments. “This one I can give to you for CIA is experimenting with a new era of “We do business with many people eight thousand rupees,” meaning ap- robotic warfare, were to my left. Islam- in Islamabad,” he chirped. “Welcome!” proximately a hundred dollars. abad, the capital, besieged by Islamist Zafar brought out a pot of bitter As we sipped our tea, the father told militants, was behind me. And to my green tea and a platter of sugarcoated me that the war in Swat had been good right, a few valleys to the north, the almonds. Before long, I was on the for them. “There’s been a lot coming Pakistani army was battling the Taliban fl oor with my feet stretched out, lean- out in the past month. We’re cutting forces that had overrun parts of the Swat ing back on a hard round pillow, feel- down on making much ourselves. The Valley. That was where I was headed. ing perfectly at ease. originals are much better business. Of Weeks before I arrived in Pakistan, “So what is it that you’d like?” Za- course, if you’re interested in getting the Swat Museum in Saidu Sharif had far began. something made, we’re taking orders.” been damaged when a suicide bomber “I’m wondering if there is anything He reached deep into his tunic hit a nearby security checkpoint. After- coming out of Swat,” I said. pocket and pulled out playing-card- ward, the museum, which houses one “There’s always things coming out size photos of artifacts. As I leafed of the largest collections of Gandharan of Swat. Are you looking for some- through the stack, he pointed to a art in the world, was shuttered, and I thing in particular?” cupboard in the corner. “If you want was traveling there to see the damage “I like the stone stuff.” something in this size, give us two for myself. Here in Takht Bahi, almost The father muttered in Pashto at the weeks and we can have something exactly halfway between Islamabad and son, who got up and went outside. ready. Maybe ten thousand rupees.” Swat, I had stopped to check out the “Many people in the village, these “How would I transport it?” I asked. ruins—and maybe, in the shadows of young boys you see outside, they work “We can arrange a dubba,” he this old Buddhist monastery, encounter for us,” the old man said. “They’ll go said, referring to a minivan. “It’ll fi t some historic art uprooted by war. and dig and dig till they fi nd some- in the back and you can drive with I hired a guide and told him I was thing. Then they bring it to us. That’s it to Islamabad.” serious about buying antiquities. He what we have. Some of it’s good. Some I hesitated. “What if I want to take said he knew a few people. And so one of it, not so much. But it’s all sellable. it out of the country?” day we drove to the edge of town, There will be respected buyers like He seemed delighted at my entre- where he asked me to stop the car and yourself, but the rest we can sell locally preneurial spirit. He held his thumb to wait for him near a row of small shops. in Peshawar. I’ve been doing this my his ear like a telephone and said, “One I watched him through the wind- whole life. You’ve made the right choice phone call and we clear you through shield as he chatted with a group of coming to me.” customs. Guarantee.” I wanted to men. One of them walked back to the Zafar returned with two woven make sure that this old man sitting in car with my guide and slid into the plastic-fi ber bags. He pulled a life-size a shantytown in Takht Bahi was se- back seat. “He sells,” my guide said, brick-colored head from one bag, curing me safe passage out of Pakistan. pointing to the man. Zafar, as he in- tossed it between his hands like a “And what about at the other end? troduced himself, was young, and basketball, and placed it on the rug in In New York, London?” I asked. freshly shaven except for a thick black front of me. I picked it up and exam- He scrunched his eyebrows and mustache. He spoke decent Urdu with ined it, tracing the intricate facial held out one palm, in a gesture a thick Pashto accent. He also had features and the elaborately carved often seen in the Buddhas of Gan- only one functional eye—the right turban. The nose was badly damaged, dhara. “You’ll have to plan one was glazed over white—and this but still, the head was beautiful. that yourself.” gave his otherwise unthreatening de- Whose hands had made this? How meanor a sinister edge. many hands had touched it since? Prior to World War II, it was rela- “What do you have?” I asked. How many centuries of war and peace tively easy to move antiquities across “Whatever you like,” he said. had these lifeless eyes witnessed? “It’s international borders. And during the

40 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / APRIL 2011

(38-44) Mufti final3cx2.indd 40 2/21/11 11:40 AAMM KBEBIIRS>QB>JLC confl ict itself, the belligerents plun- ed the Department of Defense to TOFQBOPE>PMOLAR@BA> dered one another’s art and relics train soldiers in the protection of an- ?LLHVLRÁII?BAFMMFKD without reservation. The Third Reich tiquities and cultural sites. And in established a special department “for 2009, the Iraqi government an- FKQLCLOVB>OP the seizure and securing of objects of nounced that 632 antique objects © FJLRQLK>RQELOLC>IILRO cultural value.” The Americans and looted from the museum in Baghdad Soviets looted from Germany toward had been recovered and returned by the end of the war. In the Far East, the United States. Another 542 piec- the Japanese stole as many as 100,000 es were returned a year later. Of the -0' .*!/# "( pieces of art from Korea alone. fifteen thousand artifacts that were After the war, things changed. The stolen, at least half remain missing, Allies proposed that all looted Euro- presumably moving from one private pean artworks be returned to their collection to the next.1 places of origin. The task was too big How such artifacts made their way Á to complete with any degree of into the hands of dealers and collec- OBC>@B?VLVILRKQ O effi ciency , and the European powers tors is, of course, a key question. The were determined to retain the art taken military reports released by WikiLeaks from their colonies. Finally, in 1954, last summer contain at least half a the Convention for the Protection of dozen references to antiquities being RIBPLCQEB>JBEB Cultural Property in the Event of found in the hands of insurgents in BPQ MLOQP OFQFKD COLJ Armed Confl ict was signed by forty- both Afghanistan and Iraq, cheek by eight countries at The Hague (the jowl with large caches of arms and >OMBOÁP >D>WFKB RK@LS¦ United States waited until 2009 to explosives. This confirmed a long- BOP CRKKV QLR@EFKD BU@FQ¦ ratify the treaty). The agreement con- standing suspicion that the sale of FKDFKQOFDRFKDPQLOFBPLCQEB ferred protected status on all “cultural antiquities to the West was helping to property.” Invading armies were hence- fund the militants. PMLOQFKD IFCB ?LQE MOLCBP¦ forth made responsible for ensuring Ancient art now crisscrosses the PFLK>I>KA>J>QBROEBPB that no cultural property—including globe via clandestine networks of in- BPP>VP PELT QE>Q ELT TB art, monuments, and objects from ar- dividual dealers and organized-crime chaeological and historical sites—was syndicates. The market for illegal an- MI>V>KATOFQB>?LRQPMLOQP harmed or removed. tiquities is estimated at between $2 OB^B@QP >KA @BIB?O>QBP LRO With governments largely out of the and $6 billion a year, and the mer- K>QFLKÁP@E>O>@QBO art-stealing business, the trade moved chandise often travels by the same EFP @LIIB@QFLK FK@IRABP into private hands. Individuals with routes as narcotics, illegal arms, and— wealth and means began amassing vast according to Robert Puffer, an Amer- PLJBLCQEBJLPQTBII¦HKLTK collections of looted art. To stanch the ican antiquities dealer who has worked >KA OBPMB@QBA TOFQBOP LC fl ow, the United Nations in 1970 estab- with U.S. security agencies in QEB M>PQ @BKQROV FK@IRAFKD lished the Convention on the Means Pakistan—even nuclear material. of Prohibiting and Preventing the Il- War, needless to say, is al- >OHT>FKLJLICB licit Import, Export and Transfer of ways a boon for the trade. EFOIBV >@HPLK BTFP Ownership of Cultural Property. This >ME>J>OV>OQTOFDEQ agreement stated that objects that had As I continued north toward the already been removed (the word “loot- Swat Valley, I made a short detour to >OQIBQQ F>J>QQF BQB ed” wasn’t used) from their place of the town of Lund Khwar to meet with UQEBIJBLODBIFJMQLK origin could be traded. From that point a man named Ali Muhammad Khan. >KAF@ELEBK forward, however, nothing could be He had, I was told, once worked at the taken without government approval. National Museum of Pakistan, and None of these conventions have was responsible for the excavation and AFQBA?V >QQEBTQBSBKPLK been treated very seriously by anyone, protection of all archaeological sites in >KA F@E>BI >OQFK anywhere. A vivid demonstration came the country. I drove past thick foliage in 2003, when the Iraqi National Mu- on the jeep trail, honking at cattle, un- OABOQLA>VQEOLRDE seum in Baghdad was ransacked. As til I fi nally reached Khan’s house. He TTTE>OMBOPLOD¥PQLOB¥ORIBPLCQEBD>JB thieves carried off some of humanity’s invited me into a humid and darkened R?IFPEBA?VO>KHIFKNR>OBOBPP most ancient artifacts, American sol- living room to talk. A fan hung mo- ¦¦ ¦¦ diers stood by and watched, unsure of tionless from the ceiling. “I’m sorry, LCQ@LSBO their responsibilities. F RANKLIN Perhaps their confusion had some- 1 The initial 632 items returned by the United SQUARE States went missing when the shipment ar- PRESS thing to do with the United States’ rived in Iraq. They were eventually found at reluctance to sign the 1954 conven- the offi ces of Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki tion. In any case, the episode prompt- in September 2010.

FPQOF?RQBAQEOLRDE FAMLFKQO>ABLLHP LETTER FROM PAKISTAN 41

(38-44) Mufti final3cx2.indd 41 2/21/11 11:41 AAMM Now you can read the power’s been out for hours,” he told me. “Some even said this stuff was said, snapping at one of his servants to more valuable than heroin, so why Harper’s Magazine get us some Pepsi. wouldn’t they trade it?” Khan took over at the National Mu- Predictably enough, the U.S.-led anytime, anywhere . . . seum as head of archaeology in 1989. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 gave The Soviets had just left Afghanistan, the illicit trade yet another boost. As and the civil war that followed their the fi ghting spilled over into Pakistani exit had begun. Both benign and prof- territory, the heart of Gandhara was

T HOMA S FRANK: IN PRAISE OF T H E TEA PARTY iteering lovers of ancient art of the once again engulfed by war. The ro- Persian, Zoroastrian, and Gandharan bust trade in Afghan antiquities was cultures took great interest in the con- now augmented by a fresh supply of H ARPER’S MAGAZINE/JANUARY 2011 $6.99 fl ict. The Kabul Museum, for example, Gandharan treasures from Pakistan. had housed thousands of artifacts rep- As they did in Iraq, American offi - resenting more than fi ve millennia of cials have tried to make amends. In Afghan history. In 1989, says Khan, it 2007, Ryan Crocker, the former U.S. was slowly being cleaned out: “The ambassador to Pakistan, returned dealers were showing collectors the thirty- nine stolen Gandharan artifacts, ◆ THE DRUNK’S CLUB Kabul Museum catalogue as a menu.” including a rare sculpture of a fasting, A.A., the Cult that Cures By Clancy Martin Peshawar, the largest frontier town emaciated Buddha, in a highly publi- DISAPPEARING INK Afghanistan’s Potemkin Democracy By Matthieu Aikins in Pakistan, became the central trading cized ceremony in Islamabad. The ob- THE HARE’S MASK A story by Mark Slouka post for looted Afghan antiquities. jects had been intercepted at Newark Also: James Fenton and Phillip Lopate ◆ Pakistani traffi ckers made millions cut- airport as they arrived on fl ights from ting deals with buyers in New York London and Tokyo, and were estimated City, London, Zurich, Tokyo. “From to be worth several million dollars. Peshawar,” Khan said, “these things Their return, Crocker said, was a sign were going in more directions than we of America’s “true respect for the pro- could know.” found cultural heritage of Pakistan.” . . . when you sign up The purchases were hardly confi ned I asked Khan what he thought to the criminal underground. In bla- about the efforts of United States and for our digital edition tant violation of both international Pakistani law enforcement to bring conventions and its own laws, the these artifacts back to the country. He through Zinio. Subscribe Pakistani government bought hun- was skeptical, and also suspected that dreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of some of the returned artifacts were today and have the next Afghan antiquities —on the pretext of fakes. During his tenure at the Na- protecting them. And that was just tional Museum in the 1990s, he said, 12 issues of Harper’s the offi cial business. Benazir Bhutto, he had a brush with the “high levels” who was then prime minister, was an of leadership in Pakistan. Magazine delivered to avid collector, as was her husband, “We caught a big shipment of Gan- Asif Ali Zardari. Under her watch, dharans in a crate, packed in with fur- some of Pakistan’s senior offi cials, in- niture,” he recalled, “and we brought it your PC, laptop, or iPad. cluding the interior minister, built up all back to the museum for safekeeping formidable collections of Afghan arti- while customs investigated. A few days facts. Far from being shy about it, later I get a call from the son of—let’s these high-profi le Pakistanis openly say, someone important—and he makes Subscribe now by displayed their treasures to interna- an offer. He says if I lend him one of the tional dignitaries and journalists.2 pieces for one week, he would return it visiting the digital It was also during this period that without a scratch. And of course he the trade in Gandharan antiques be- offered me money for this rental.” subscription store at came inextricably linked to the Af- Khan knew that the artifact would ghan opium trade. In some instances, be stolen and a fake returned to the www.harpers.org hollowed-out relics were packed with museum. The truth would never come drugs and shipped internationally. “It out, and the real piece would have was the same people running it,” Khan another chance to make it out of the country. He refused. 2 More recently, Zardari, who is now presi- “I never joined the racket, and dent of Pakistan, was indicted in his own look at where it’s landed me,” Khan country for smuggling eight boxes of antiq- said, glancing up at the motionless uities intercepted at Heathrow Airport in 2007. The case was dismissed by a loyalist fan. It was sweltering in the house, so Pakistani court in 2008, just months before we walked out to the porch to fi nish Zardari became president. our Pepsis. I thanked Khan and told

42 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / APRIL 2011

(38-44) Mufti final3cx2.indd 42 2/21/11 11:41 AAMM him I was hoping to make it to the est outside Pakistan, owes much to Swat Museum. Cunningham. A catalogue of Gan- “The road is closed a few miles up dharan art published by the museum in north,” he said. “I don’t think the 1996 lists 25 sculptures from his per- military will let you pass. They’re be- sonal collection. Another 181 pieces ing very strict.” He looked me up and can be traced to his excavations in down. “You could try, but what is the northwestern Pakistan, including many point? You’re not going to fi nd any- from Taxila. Still, the catalogue does thing there. It’s been all cleaned out!” make a show of postcolonial contrition, I stood dumbstruck. alluding to the “chequered history of “No, no, not the Taliban,” he said, oriental collections” and insisting that sensing my dismay. “It was the govern- “nothing exported since 1947 has been With all ment.” Khan meant this as good news, knowingly acquired.” the money but I was not reassured. “They decided I battled maddening midday traffi c, she’d saved at to clear out the entire museum. I think driving past fortifi ed military-hardware they’ve moved it to the museum in factories on the historic Grand Trunk Daedalus, Taxila. You should probably Road, and when I fi nally reached the Marty could finally check over there fi rst.” Taxila museum complex, it inspired a deep spiritual calm in me. Bright green, afford to open I never made it to the Swat Valley. manicured grounds surround the pre- her own business The road was indeed blocked by the served ruins of the ancient city. A plaque military, and I was told that the Swat at the entrance dedicates the museum Museum was under lockdown. So I to its founder, Sir John Marshall, who, turned back and, as Khan had sug- like Cunningham, served as director of gested, visited the museum in Taxila. the Archaeological Survey of India. Taxila, once the capital of Gandhara, I met with Abdul Nasir Khan, a has a long history. Its name occurs in curator at the museum who had previ- ancient Hindu religious texts and Chi- ously worked in the Swat Valley for nese travelogues, and the Greek histo- seventeen years. Together we walked rian Arrian described it as “the largest the museum’s galleries, looking at ob- town between the rivers Indus and Hy- jects that had been dug from the very daspes.” In the sixth century a.d., Chi- earth on which we were standing. Na- nese pilgrims who passed through the sir Khan told me he had just been in a city reported it deserted. After that, meeting with the local police. There Taxila was lost for more than a thou- had been a major Taliban attack only sand years—until 1872, when an En- a few days earlier on a nearby ammuni- glish engineer and lover of antiquities tion factory, and the museum had also named Alexander Cunningham stum- been put on alert. “We are talking bled onto the ruins of the ancient city about raising the boundary wall by a near the Punjab Plain. few feet and getting some barbed wire,” The rediscovery of Taxila was a ma- he said, widening his blue-gray eyes. jor archaeological event. Cunningham Nasir Khan confi rmed for me that was no archaeologist—he was best the “Swat Museum operation” had in known for leading the royal commis- fact taken place. Late one night a few sion that drew the border between Brit- weeks before, a fl eet of large fl atbed ish India and Tibet. Still, he was prob- trucks was driven to the Swat Museum ably the fi rst Westerner to study the and loaded with the entire collection. thousand-year-old sculptures in Taxila Covered with nothing but tarps, the with a critical eye. Cunningham wrote antiquities were transported nearly 150 that they “exhibit a boldness of design miles through steep mountain passes Daedalus and a freedom of execution which no and deposited at storage units in Taxi- Eastern artist has ever yet shown.” He la. “There was war all around,” he re- also stated that they “owe all their counted, “and we didn’t even have a Books beauty as well as all their truth of military escort.” grouping to the teachings of Greek “We didn’t have time to get to the Still the Best Browse artists.” The Buddhist sculptures and reserve collection in the basement, but in Bargain Books relics were promptly crated and shipped I’m pretty sure it’s safe,” Nasir Khan off to London. added, trying very much to sound con- For a free catalog call Today, the British Museum’s collec- vincing. He fell silent and was lost in tion of Gandharan sculpture, the larg- thought for a moment. The museum 1.800.395.2665 salebooks.com

LETTER FROM PAKISTAN 43

(38-44) Mufti final3cx2.indd 43 2/21/11 11:38 AM had a few visitors, and next to us a at a time when wonderful objects connoisseurship and American wealth. young girl tugged at her mother and from India and the Himalayas could The idea of such a pedigree clearly pointed to a life-size standing sculpture be readily found on the market.” It excited Rochell. “Look at that Gan- of Lord Buddha. was only the second day of the show, dharan Bodhisattva behind you,” he “Who’s this, Mama?” she asked. and Rochell said he had already sold said, gesturing at a gleaming, two-foot- “It’s Buddha. He used to live here a two thirds of the collection. At least tall fi gure with one arm broken off at long time ago.” one piece had been snatched up by the elbow. “That’s Mathias Komor,” he Nasir turned to me and said, “I have the Metropolitan Museum of Art. explained, naming one of the godfa- a son who’s about the same age, and Rochell spent eighteen years at thers of the trade in Asian antiquities, you know what I worry about? Pretty Sotheby’s, establishing their Indian who, as a dealer, helped the Met build soon there won’t be anything left to art department before beginning to its collection in the 1960s. “You show him.” deal privately in 2002. His is one of know, there’s real history The fact is that looters are not the several galleries selling Gandharan with some of these things.” only menace to ancient relics. For art that have sprung up on Manhat- years, militants in both Pakistan tan’s Upper East Side during the past A few weeks after my meeting and Afghanistan have attacked pre- decade. Looking at the market, it’s with Rochell, I called Nasir Khan, the Islamic historical sites. Many private easy to understand why the fi eld is curator in Taxila. He sounded glad to collectors in the West use this as jus- becoming more crowded. hear from me and reported that he tifi cation for siphoning such artifacts In the spring of 2002, Sotheby’s was was still holding down the fort. There away from their native lands. They surprised to see a head of Lord Bud- had been no attacks on the museum, often point to the Taliban’s destruc- dha, with an estimated value of he said happily, and for the time being tion of the colossal Buddhas at Bami- $30,000 to $50,000, fetch $234,000 there were no pending threats either. I yan, in eastern Afghanistan, in 2001. after a bidding war. Encouraged, per- asked him about his son, and he told Like many, I had long assumed that haps, by this Gandharan gold rush, me that they might visit Swat, which Mullah Omar had the massive sculp- the auction house chose a striking was long the most popular tourist spot tures destroyed because he hated image for the cover of its catalogue a in Pakistan, before the war. them. It was a simple enough explana- few months later: a Gandharan Bud- A precarious order now holds in tion, and it fi t in with a centuries-old dha procured by a British offi cer in Swat. The Pakistani Army claims that tradition of Islamic iconoclasm. Peshawar in the nineteenth century. “complete peace has been restored” to Some, however, suspect that the The top estimate for the piece was the area. The refugee camp with the Bamiyan Buddhas might have been $150,000—but the hammer fell at blue-green tents in Takht Bahi has destroyed out of fi scal prudence. The $669,500, doubling the world record emptied out, and most of its occupants Taliban was aware of the international for Gandharan art sold at auction. have returned home. The Pakistani demand for Gandharan art and may As the American military began its tourism board has been encouraging have considered the Buddhas too valu- long campaign in what the diplomats people to visit the region in an at- able to be left intact on a mountain- like to call Af-Pak, Sotheby’s issued a tempt to revive the local economy. side. The assault on the sculptures, press release stating that the market for Meanwhile, a million other refugees conducted with explosives, tanks, and Gandharan art had “changed forever.” from the tribal areas have fl ed their anti-aircraft guns, made for some The next year, the auction house broke homes, escaping American drones and shocking footage. But in the days that its own record, when a Gandharan Pakistani helicopter gunships, and set- followed, as the world decried the Tali- piece sold for $736,000. One could ting up tents near Peshawar. The men ban’s barbarity, tons of debris began ar- hardly ask for a more precise correlation and boys among them will look for any riving quietly in Pakistan’s tribal areas between the ravages of war and the kind of work. Some will become drug from across the border with Bamiyan. dubious trade in cultural treasures. mules, some will undoubtedly pick up Newspapers reported that local dealers Auction houses, of course, offer a a gun, and others will dig the earth in were selling fragments in bulk, and glimpse into the public workings of the search of Lord Buddha. that international buyers art market. But in a discreet location This spring, as New York City’s Asia were biting. like Rochell’s gallery, tucked away in a Society unveils the largest museum Manhattan apartment, museums and exhibition of Gandharan art ever One afternoon last spring, I other institutional buyers will spend mounted in America, the Swat Mu- paid a visit to a dealer named Carl- hundreds of millions of dollars on an- seum remains closed. Its collection is ton Rochell at his gallery space off cient art. The Brooklyn Museum, for still in storage in Taxila. The emaci- Park Avenue in Manhattan. The example, owns many pieces from the ated Gandharan Buddha and many of gallery was perfectly sunlit that day, Dickes collection. Rochell’s other clients the items returned by Ambassador warming the half-dozen customers have their names inscribed in museums Crocker in 2007 have yet to be put on examining the ancient items on the in Los Angeles, Houston, and Canberra. display, but Nasir Khan told me that walls. Rochell was selling off the pri- In the process, the primordial urge to he expected one of them to be the vate collection of Robert and Ber- own such objects is transformed into ceremonial centerpiece whenever the nice Dickes, who, according to the something else: they become dynastic museum opens its doors once again. catalogue, “were fortunate to collect tokens, each with its own pedigree of There is, at present, no date set. ■

44 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / APRIL 2011

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