While greater emphasis is repeatedly laid by government officials for promotion of art and culture to support country’s soft image abroad, frequent robberies at the art councils sadly expose their hollow slogans. National Artists Association of Pakistan has written a letter to the Ministry of History and National Heritage drawing its attention to disappearance of artworks and souvenirs worth tens of millions of rupees from Pakistan Arts Council in Karachi.
The very letter also suggest that these artefacts had started missing from the art council since 2016 but no concrete action was taken to prevent the theft of these invaluable art pieces. Indeed an organised racket is behind such robberies but these cannot take place without the connivance of staff members of the art council. Therefore, relevant authorities must immediately start investigation to hold accountable those responsible for disappearance of priceless artefacts. In fact it is not the first instance of artwork theft in Pakistan. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) two years ago had launched an inquiry into the disappearance and theft of artwork and precious paintings from the Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) in Islamabad.
According to the FIA, 134 pieces of art, worth millions of rupees in total, had either disappeared or been stolen from the PNCA over several years. Ustad Allah Ditta’s famous Ramchand and Lakshman were included in the centuries-old works of art that had gone missing from the PNCA. Nobody knows about the outcome of the FIA investigation and whether anybody was taken to the task. But it was rumoured at that time that the missing pieces of art had either been gifted to influential people or sold at high prices in the black market. In fact this list of how negligently we handle our invaluable art works is long. There are also instances where the artefacts were misplaced while being shipped, some perished in customs warehouses, some never returned after being sent for international exhibitions; a number of them were bought for Pakistan’s foreign missions, remained on display in the embassies but no record of their existence survives. Perhaps those too were discarded like old furniture. If we cannot save a physical artwork, we cannot retain it in our discourse for long.
We, therefore, would urge Ministry of Cultural Heritage to take a strong look at prevailing affairs of the art councils and take urgent steps to streamline them so that they could serve the purpose for which they were established. Foolproof security arrangements must be made to protect art treasure and artefacts by using latest technology including CCTV cameras. A central registry should also be prepared to maintain a proper record of artefacts. Given the rich and diverse art and culture the country possesses, it should also be properly showcased by using different mediums including through exhibitions. It will help us not only attract tourists but also project country’s true and positive face to the world.
