18 June 2025, Lalitpur, Nepal
We, participants of the International Conference on Recovery of Cultural Heritage, have met in Lalitpur, Nepal (16-18 June 2025) to highlight the scourge of cultural loot that impacts all societies on Earth, to consider the impact the theft of tangible heritage has on cultural identity, to seek ways to urgently tackle the continuing loss of cultural heritage worldwide, and to demand the return of stolen objects back to their home countries and communities.
We call upon administrators, activists and academics around the world to collaborate to combat the theft of heritage. Even as societies everywhere encounter political turbulence and economic upheavals, we urge increased local, national, regional and international interaction to make heritage theft and restitution a primary focus of discourse.
In order to destroy the market for cultural artefacts – statuary, ritual items, architectural elements, archaeological finds – we call upon scholars, activists and media to work together to expose and hold accountable all individuals and organisations engaged in cultural theft, including thieves, brokers, dealers, museums, collectors and all others facilitating the ‘trade’.
We also demand the historical and archival investigations to expose without fear or favour individuals who have been involved in cultural loot, whether scholars, rulers, diplomatic representatives, or so-called explorers and adventurers. We also highlight the negative role of auction houses involved selling in heritage items, as many tend to specialise in subterfuge and misinformation even as the cultural objects go into anonymous private hands. We also decry the tendency of museum curators and dealers to obfuscate, equivocate and delay their response to demands for heritage return, hoping that those making the demands become tired or lose motivation.
While there are some countries and societies that have succeeded in achieving the return of a significant number of heritage objects, such as Cambodia and India, there are other places where there is very little knowledge, information or activism. Even within countries, there are regions where there is more awareness and activism than in other parts. We believe it is our common responsibility to raise the voice of the voiceless communities that have seen and continue to face loss of heritage.
Loss of heritage happens through numerous pathways, including civil wars and insurgencies, demographic change, migration, modernisation, urbanisation, and so on. The momentum of economic growth and infrastructure development also leads to the eclipse of local shrines, deities, rituals and festivals. In majoritarian societies everywhere, heritage of minority communities is impacted by monocultural pressures. We call upon scholars and activists to engage intensely with the divergent sources of cultural loss so that solutions can be applied, individually or in unison.
Media, including investigative journalists, have been at the forefront of uncovering the loot of ltural objects and also covering the campaigns for the return of such objects. Given the worldwide challenge faced by cultural heritage, we ask all involved in legacy media and new media to expend more energy in investigation into the subject of cultural loss and restitution.
We Conference participants also ask academia to of the Global South and Global North to consider that the theft of tangible heritage leads to weakening of intangible heritage, even as continuities of traditional
structures, familial memory and local wisdom are erased. There is a resulting cumulative loss that makes the entire globe a poorer place in terms of cultural sensitivity and human empathy. We ask the world of academia to invest itself more in the study of the loss of cultural heritage, making it a primary area of scholarly work.
We participants find the engagement of the governments of both ‘sending’ as well as ‘receiving’ countries less than adequate in preventing cultural theft and promoting return of stolen items. We therefore call upon governments and authorities on both sides of the divide to pay special attention to the subject of heritage loot, and put in place or update bilateral, regional and global agreements to facilitate documentation, identification and return of heritage to home societies.
The participants of the Conference believe that the prima facie responsibility of proving ‘provenance’ of heritage items lies with the museums and collectors, whereas presently the onus is placed mostly on communities who have lost their heritage objects. Until such time that a return of such objects is facilitated, we demand that the museums and collectors make public announcements that they are held as naaso, the Nepali term indicating the items are held in trust till the time of repatriation.
The Conference objects to the tendency of museums, collectors and others involved in the ‘spectrum of cultural theft’ to claim that they are protecting items which would otherwise have been lost. While the suggestion may hold in exceptional circumstances, the argument does not stand scrutiny as against the irreparable cultural harm done to the ‘sending’ societies.
The Conference calls upon scholars, activists and administrators to consider the repatriation of cultural objects to their original sites, as much as possible. All necessary efforts must be made to ensure security of the returned objects in the original sites.
The Conference participants note that the widespread use of social media has led to a global ‘market’ for looted heritage objects. At the same time, we see the possibility of using digital technology and AI in tackling and upending the international market in cultural contraband. We must utilise and adapt available new technologies to try and destroy the trade in cultural objects.
We believe in the importance of UNESCO as the lead international agency for culture to spearhead efforts to update international laws on cultural theft and repatriation, and to play the central role in sensitising member-states as to their rights and obligations on heritage matters. As human society is built on cultural wellbeing in the citizenry, we believe that UNESCO must be equipped to be able to address the various aspects of heritage loss and return. We also call on other regional groupings including the European Union, SAARC, ASEAN, SCO, Arab League, ECOWAS, APEC and others to place the subject of cultural theft and restoration firmly on their agenda.
We participants call upon the Government of Nepal to increase its budgetary outlay for the Department of Archaeology within the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation so that the Department can play an even more significant role as the designated agency to protect Nepal’s rich cultural heritage. We believe that Nepal’s Government and civil society can and should be even more active in tackling the theft of heritage within Kathmandu Valley (Nepal Mandal, Swoniga:), as well as in the mountain, hill and plains regions of the country.
In conclusion, thanking Nepal’s Department of Archaeology and the Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign for having organised this Conference, we participants commit ourselves to convene such meetings in our individual countries and regions, so that the momentum of international collaboration between scholars, activists and administrators of the Global South and Global North is maintained. We call for a series of conferences worldwide to address specific aspects of heritage loot and recovery.
Download: Sacred Returns: The Repatriation of Nepal’s Heritage