DUSHANBE, January 21, 2012, Asia-Plus — Representative of the British Museum will hand over the copies of some of items of the Oxus Treasure to Tajikistan on the eve of the Navrouz holiday, on the day of an official opening of the new building of the National Museum of Tajikistan, Minister of Culture Mirzoshorukh Asrori announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on January 20.
According to him, the British Museum has paid all expenses on making the copies and the Tajik side has paid only expenses on gilding the copies. “The National Museum of Tajikistan has transferred 1,000 euros to the British Museum for this work,” the minister said.
It is impossible to make copies of the majority of items of the Oxus Treasure because they are very fragile. Therefore, the British Museum has decided to make copies only of those items that can be copied.
We will recall that in April 2007, the presidential office said that President Emomali Rahmon has given orders to take the necessary steps to return the Oxus treasure, which is kept at the British Museum.
The Oxus treasure is a collection of 170 gold and silver items from the Achaemenid Persian period dating from the 4th – 2nd centuries B.C., including vessels, armlets, seals, finger rings, and coins. Pieces from it are located in the Victoria and Albert Museum and in the British Museum, with many items bequeathed to the nation by Augustus Wollaston Franks.
The artifacts were discovered in the 19th century. A group of merchants acquired the Treasure (the precise findspot is unknown, but thought to be on the River Oxus. Oxus is the ancient name of the Amudarya River); however, on the road from Kabul to Peshawar they were captured by bandits, who dispersed the Treasure before they were rescued by Capt. F.C. Burton, the British political officer in Afghanistan. He then helped them to recover the Treasure and, in gratitude, they sold him a companion piece to one of the bracelets now at the British Museum; this companion piece is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. These merchants then continued to Rawalpindi to sell the rest of the Treasure. Thus pieces of the Oxus Treasure were then bought from the bazaars of India, and finally ended up in the British Museum after this long journey.
