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Glasgow Life becomes first UK museum to repatriate objects to India
Seven artefacts have been returned as part of a wider repatriation programme
Seven items – including a ceremonial Indo-Persian tulwar (sword) and an 11th-century carved stone door jamb taken from a Hindu temple in Kanpur – have been repatriated from Scotland to India where they will go on display.
The return is part of an agreement between Glasgow Life Museums and the Archaeological Survey of India, the government agency responsible for archaeological research. It is the first time a UK museum service has repatriated items to India.
Six of the objects, which are now in transit to India, were stolen from temples and shrines across the country during the 19th century. The seventh was bought after a theft from the owner. All were gifted to Glasgow’s civic museum collections.
Last summer, dignitaries from the High Commission of India in London visited Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum for a transfer of ownership ceremony and to sign an agreement confirming the repatriation of the objects.
“The physical return of these Indian items marks a milestone for Glasgow,” Bailie Annette Christie, the chair of Glasgow Life and convenor for Culture, Sport and International Relations for Glasgow City Council, said in a statement.
“We must thank the High Commission of India, the British High Commission and the Archaeological Survey of India for their help and cooperation in ensuring the safe return of these objects from Glasgow’s museum collections.”
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The repatriation is part of a larger agreement, approved by Glasgow City Council last April, to return 51 items to India, Nigeria and the US (to the Cheyenne River and Pine Ridge Lakota Sioux tribes in South Dakota).
Glasgow Life has repatriated 19 Benin bronzes to Nigeria. And it is due to transfer 25 Lakota and Oceti Sakowin ancestor and cultural items (sold and donated to Glasgow’s museums by George Crager, an interpreter for the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show who visited the city in 1892) to the Cheyenne River Sioux and Oglala Sioux tribes.
Glasgow Life is a charity that delivers cultural, sporting and learning activities on behalf of Glasgow City Council.