Ancient Afghan sculpture returns home

An ancient pre-Islamic sculpture has been returned to Afghanistan from Germany, officials say. The Afghan embassy in Berlin is said to be investigating the ownership of the treasured work, which appeared in Munich a year ago.

The sculpture shows eight figures and dates from the second century. The move has sparked optimism in Kabul that other lost and stolen treasures that have gone missing during the country’s wars will be found.

Since the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, 17 years of war have followed, with most of the Afghan National Museum’s contents either deliberately destroyed or looted.

It is estimated that of the approximately 100,000 items that were on display in 1979, some 70 percent had disappeared by the mid-1990s. Items that were worth more were sold on the international market. Others have simple been burned or buried in rubble.

The sculpture’s eight figures are all turned towards the left and are believed to be watching Buddha on his throne in the ancient kingdom of Gandhara, which took up parts of what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"This is a masterpiece... I am optimistic that in the future we will get the other artefacts back," National Museum Director Omara Khan Massoudi told the Reuters news agency.

Mr Massoudi said that an agreement between the global police Interpol and the UN's Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation had helped to recover over 8,000 artefacts since 2007, including a fifth century wooden Buddha.

Afghanistan has a vibrant historical past, and is especially unique do to its geographical location at the crossroads between Asia and the Middle East. Other looted treasures have been found in other parts of Europe, the US and Japan. 20 ivories, which are currently held by the British Museum, are expected to be returned this year.

The Taliban's contempt of pre-Islamic art was most famously enacted with the destruction of the giant Buddhist statutes at Bamiyan in 2001. The Taliban also ruled in the same year that all pre-Islamic art must be destroyed and it is estimated by Mr Massoudi that they have destroyed 2,500 works of art.