KATHMANDU- A total of 40 wooden artifacts exported to the United States through illegal ways have been sent to Nepal. The Embassy of Nepal in Washington DC said that it sent 40 wooden artifacts received from the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to Nepal.
It is said that the Department of Archaeology of Nepal will receive the artifacts in Kathmandu on Saturday. These illegally exported artifacts of Nepal were confiscated in Hawaii by the United States Customs and Border Protection in August 2010. The government of Nepal had officially requested the US government to return these objects to Nepal in 2011. The Embassy of Nepal in Washington DC had received the artifacts on May 11, 2023. “Four, out of 39 engraved and painted wooden panels and a carved wooden shrine, were randomly selected for display during the handover ceremony.
The Embassy of Nepal had displayed again these artifacts during Nepal tourism promotion program organized at the Embassy on August 1,” according to a press statement by the Embassy of Nepal. The Embassy has expressed its thanks to all the US government agencies and individuals in these efforts. With this shipment, the Embassy has so far returned 47 artifacts of historical, cultural, and religious importance to Nepal since April 2022.