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Pak lawyer asks govt to bring back 5,000-year-old statue from India
ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani lawyer has filed a petition in the Lahore high court asking the government to bring back a 5,000-year-old bronze statue called the “Dancing
ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani lawyer has filed a petition in the Lahore high court asking the government to bring back a 5,000-year-old bronze statue called the “Dancing Girl” from India.
Javed Iqbal Jaffrey on Monday called for a suo motu action by the court.
According to the website of India’s National Museum, the “Indus dancing girl” represents a “stylistically poised female figure performing a dance”.
It was excavated from Mohenjodaro, now in Pakistan, in 1926.
The tiny bronze statue which is 10.5 cm in height is suggestive of two breakthroughs - that Indus artists knew metal blending and casting and that the well developed Indus society had innovated dance and other performing arts. Some of the most famous archaeologists in the world have described it as one of the most captivating pieces of art from the Indus site.
Jaffrey claimed that the statue is the property of the Lahore Museum.
“It was taken to India around 60 years ago at the request of the National Arts Council, Delhi, and was never brought back,” a report in the Dawn daily said.
Jamal Shah, director general of the Pakistan National Museum of Arts, said in a statement that a letter would be written to the UNESCO to bring back the statue.
