Expo on stolen heritage to begin today

Kathmandu, Aug. 22

An exhibition presenting the displacement of sacred objects and cultural heritage during colonial rule and its continuing consequences across South Asia, is kicking off at Taragaon Next, Boudha in Kathmandu, on Sunday.

The two-month-long exhibition will run till October 31.

Supported by the Saraf Foundation and curated by Dr. Arshiya Mansoor Lokhandwala, the exhibition – ‘What Empire Took, What Empire Left: Museums, Borders and the Politics of Return in South Asia’ – brings together artists from across South Asia to explore questions of cultural loss, ownership, restitution, memory and the politics surrounding displaced heritage.

The exhibition will showcase how deities, manuscripts, sculptures and ritual objects were removed from living cultural and religious contexts and subsequently reclassified within Western museums and collections. “In these institutional settings, objects once embedded in ritual, community and belief systems often came to be viewed primarily as archaeological, historical or aesthetic artefacts,” the organiser said in a statement.

Participating artists include Temsüyanger Longkumer, Reetu Sattar, Shaurya Kumar, Raqs Media Collective, Mithu Sen, Divya Mehra, Marium Ghani, L.N. Tallur, Roshan Mishra, Bishal Manandhar and Jagath Weerasinghe.

“This exhibition brings South Asia into that urgent discourse, asking not simply what should return, but who holds the power to own, interpret and determine the afterlives of displaced heritage,” Dr. Lokhandwala said.

According to the organiser, rather than presenting cultural loss simply as a historical event, the exhibition will portray the structures that enabled such displacement, including colonial systems of knowledge, illicit markets, institutional complicity and museum practices that historically privileged possession and classification over the cultural and spiritual relationships surrounding an object.

The exhibition draws connections across the region, from sacred objects removed from Nepal's temples to the dispersal of Indian bronzes, Gandharan sculptures originating from present-day Pakistan, and the erosion and displacement of Bangladesh's terracotta heritage.

“It carries particular resonance in Nepal, where the theft and removal of religious sculptures and sacred objects from temples, shrines and public spaces have long raised questions about heritage protection, repatriation and the relationship between communities and their cultural inheritance,” read the statement.

Saraf said that for Nepal, where questions of heritage, loss and return are deeply felt, this exhibition creates an important space for reflection. The programme will also feature discussions on the broader historical, political and ethical questions that inform their artistic practices.

Published in The Rising Nepal on 23 August 2026.