KATHMANDU: Two historic masks of Akash Bhairav, stolen from Dolakha nearly three decades ago and later traced to museums in the United States, have been formally returned to their original community.
The masks were handed over to local community representatives during a ceremony held at the National Museum on Wednesday.
The artifacts were stolen from the ancestral house of the Nakchhe Pradhan family in Dolakha on March 6, 1994, and March 8, 1995. Efforts to recover them gained momentum after it was discovered that the masks were being held by the Dallas Museum of Art and the Rubin Museum of Art.
The case resurfaced in 2017 when heritage conservation activist Anil Chandra Shrestha shared old photographs of the missing masks on social media during Indra Jatra. Subsequent research and evidence collection, supported by Lost Arts of Nepal, confirmed their presence in the two American museums.
Historical photographs, police complaints, and archival records related to the theft were compiled and submitted through the Nepal Heritage Preservation Campaign to the Department of Archaeology, paving the way for an official recovery process.
Legal efforts were later coordinated among the Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign, the Department of Archaeology, and relevant US authorities.
Based on the evidence provided, the Office of the New York Attorney General seized the masks from both museums and handed them over to the Nepali Consulate in New York on December 4, 2023.
With support from Newa Guthi New York, the masks were subsequently transported to Nepal and kept at the National Museum for conservation and public display.
During Wednesday’s handover ceremony, members of the local community performed traditional rituals and worship before receiving the masks. The heritage artifacts will now be reinstalled at their original location in Dolakha, restoring an important part of the community’s cultural and religious legacy.
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