This
went on for a while as Isabella contacted more London based dealers. The
reality was shocking - dealers were very sensitive about the inquiry.
"Why do you want something from Hadda?" they would ask. Or,
"Why are you specifically interested in Afghanistan, this is a very
important question since it is a strange inquiry."
Photographs
of antiquities were mailed to our office in Redondo Beach. Upon examination,
the pieces that were labeled 'Gandharan' were in fact Afghan, and those
said to be in 'the style of Hadda' in fact resembled closely the beautifully
crafted Buddhist statues from Hadda's famous 'Fish Porch' One statue in
particular nearly matched a photo of Mustamandy's excavated works which
were brought to the Kabul Museum in the 1970s. To be sold for 3,500 pounds.
Dealers can trick the public into making the whereabouts of an artifact
fuzzy. But they can't trick an expert.
Zurich
If anybody is an expert, it is Paul Bucherer, the central figure in the reconstruction
of the Buddhas and the museum. I phoned Bucherer at the Afghanistan Museum
in Switzerland, where he presides as director. Mr. Bucherer was approached
by nationalistic members of the Taliban as well as ousted President Rabbani
in the mid-1990's (then of the United Front, or Northern Alliance). Both
sides saw the threat of destruction, and requested that the Swiss Government,
and specifically Bucherer, help create a temporary storehouse - an Afghan
museum in Switzerland. Bucherer also recently went to Afghanistan to cover
the remaining rubble of Bamiyan Buddhas under a United Nations mission.
"The
Taliban realized that the al-Qaeda influence wanted the willful destruction
of Afghanistan's heritage, so certain nationalists within the government
wanted to save it before that influence became too strong."
