After
the destruction of the statues, UNESCO, a UN department which arbitrates
disputes revolving around cultural property, slackened its grip on its
policy of condemning cultural artifacts crossing borders. The hope was
that eventually the pieces would be returned to Afghanistan. Against their
will, the pieces were driven into private markets, perhaps hidden forever.
Zurich
I
phoned Mr. Bernard Weber from the New Seven Wonders Foundation in Zurich.
Mr. Weber - museum curator, adventurer, aviator and filmmaker, has recently
made news around the world by planning the reconstruction of the giant
Bamiyan buddhas, in correlation with a worldwide vote on a new set of
seven world wonders. I asked him, "Why would somebody from Switzerland
have an interest in Afghanistan?"
"I
grew up with culture," he said, "because my family owns a museum...I
am a filmmaker. I was brought up making documentaries for the museum,
working in the Museum. Basically, I wanted to find a subject for an Imax
film. There are not many subjects that fit the big screen, so I developed
this idea based on my passion for world heritage and the great sites of
the world. There has never been a declaration of the new seven wonders
of the world. The old symbols were symbols of unity for the antique world;
they were the first travel guide, established by the Greeks as a kind
of travel map. Hopefully, we can establish seven symbols of unity for
the new world."
I
asked him how he intended to reconstruct the Buddhist Statues.
"I
wanted to meet Mr. Paul Bucherer (of the Afghanistan Museum and Institute
in Zurich), because he was the first one to declare that art can be in
exile," Weber said, "just like man, a subject which I found
interesting. We met on May First, and the project of the Buddha Reconstruction
began. It turns out that Mr. Bucherer's friend, Professor Kostka, a professor
at the Technical University of Graz in Austria had a specialty as a 3D
photogrametric mapmaker in the Himalayas; mapping three dimensional mountains.
But in 1970 he was asked to map the Buddhist statues since he was in the
area."
Mr.
Kostka's measurements are the only ones that exist of the Buddha statues,
allowing the New 7 Wonders Society the unique advantage of being able
to mastermind the reconstruction.The technology will allow Weber and Bucherer
to create a one-tenth size reproduction of the statues. This phase will
allow them to explain the process to potentialinvestors, and begin to
request the appropriate funding from the world community for the project
of reconstructing the real Buddha's from local sandstones.
