‘Priceless’ Artifacts Returned to Nepal from Belgian Collector

Art Recovery International (ARI), a research firm that facilitates the restitution of artworks, has orchestrated the return of two Nepalese cultural artifacts to the country’s officials.

The two objects, according to the company’s founder, attorney Chris Marinello, were returned voluntarily from a private Belgian collector. The individual, whose identity was kept confidential as part of the exchange, had held the objects since the 1990s.

In a repatriation ceremony that took place on Friday, Gahendra Rajbhandari, Ambassador of Nepal to Belgium, was present to received the artifacts: an 11th-century illuminated wooden manuscript cover of Shivadharmottara-shastram and a 12th-century carved wooden Shalabhanjika Yakshi strut. The former was said to have been lost from the National Archives of Nepal; the strut, a roof fixture traditionally used in Nepalese shrines, came from a temple in Itumbahah, a village located in Nepal’s s Kathmandu Valley.

Marinello declined to provide the estimated value of the artifacts in an inquiry from ARTnews, saying that according to Nepalese experts with whom he worked on the exchange, the artifacts are “priceless.”

Cultural advocacy groups such as the Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign and the Lost Arts of Nepal have been active in recent years, pinpointing the origins of looted Nepalese artifacts and using social media campaigns to help bring these works back.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Nepalese artifacts circulated among private dealers with little regulation. Marinello said it a statement that “Western owners have historically fueled such demand.”

In a press conference at the embassy, Marinello said the present situation was a departure from usual high-profile restitution cases, where the return of cultural objects to government officials of their origin countries often involve contentious legal disputes. Marinello, whose firm employs cultural experts to carry out negotiations between private owners and national officials, praised the collector for their cooperation, saying the process to facilitate the latest return transpired “without legal entanglements or financial demands.”