Barendra museum heist

ACCORDING to a prominent Bengali daily, as many as 185 artefacts including ancient statues, Terracotta, currencies besides countless publications, have been smuggled out of the Barendra museum which is administered by Rajshahi university. The appalling news was revealed at a special meeting held by the museum's advisory committee recently. Based on an investigation carried out by the advisory committee, fingers have been pointed at two former directors for their alleged involvement in removing the antiques. There have been several accusations against them; they have been asked to give explanations regarding the missing artefacts.

All this not only exposes the fact that our museums are run by dubious and unprofessional officials but also the reality of how we are repeatedly failing to protect our heritage. It's the sheer number of missing antiques that is mind-boggling. Why did the number have to reach a staggering 185 plus before the disclosure came about? It appears that smuggling has been going on for long without causing any concern to the administration.

We have reasons to suspect that an unidentified smuggling syndicate has been operating with the help of some museum officials in Bangladesh. In view of the expose, we expect security to be beefed up at museums complemented by staffs that are tech-savvy in terms of identifying and preventing the smugglers from having a free ride.

Last but not least, besides ferreting out the culprits we have to be extra-ordinarily prompt in recovering the stolen items from Barendra museum.