Le trésor perdu des rois d’Afghanistan by Philippe Flandrin

Le trésor perdu des rois d’Afghanistan (ISBN 2-268-03977-3) translates into The Lost Treasure of the Kings of Afghanistan and is written by Philippe Flandrin, journalist and war correspondent.

This book is the best work about the history of Afghanistan. In a most pleasant and comprehensive way, the auteur manages to mix Afghanistan’s recent history with that of antiquity. After an introduction to the times of Cyrus the Great and Alexander the Great, he seeks and finds the transition to the days of Graeco-Buddhist art.

The catalyst agent in opening up the country of Afghanistan in recent times was, in fact, its last king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, who ruled for forty years. Unhappy about the British interference in the 19th and early 20th centuries, he turned to France for archaeological expertise. He had studied in France, and this created a natural bond. The king was deposed in a coup in 1973, and soon afterward, the Soviets invaded the now Republic of Afghanistan. Political changes always prevail in the way of life in any country. The archaeological teams soon withdrew from Afghanistan because tribal powers were still powerful. We all remember how the Taliban “liberated” the country from the Soviets and then imposed their own religious ideas.

Philippe Flandrin takes us by the hand and leads us through the mazes of Afghanistan’s stirring history as it has been forged over the centuries. People like Cyrus, Alexander, Genghis Khan, and Tamerlane have left their marks, followed by Buddhist and Chinese travelers on the Silk Road.

He starts his book with the first discoveries of sites like Ai-Khanoum, Tillya Tepe, and Hadda, including the hardships the archaeologists encountered and the opposition from the local people – generally strong Islamic believers who smashed and destroyed many of the human statues as soon as they were unearthed. Tribal elderly had their say, as even the king could not overrule or control them. Many wondrous finds have thus disappeared before reaching Kabul. Half of the artifacts that made it were entered into the newly built Museum of Kabul, and the other half were shipped off to France, finding a home at the Musée Guimet in Paris. And luckily so, because soon after the Soviet occupation, the Museum of Kabul was plundered. The gorgeous statues from the Gandhara era were destroyed, and the smaller pieces slowly but surely found their way to the illegal markets, mainly through Peshawar in Pakistan. This procedure is detailed in the second part of this book - an unfortunate episode indeed.

This exciting book's third and last part discusses the world of legal and illegal art trading worldwide. The conclusion is that most of Afghanistan's precious finds have vanished from Ai-Khanoum, Begram, Tillya Tepe, Hadda, and other key excavation sites. The sites proper have been trampled or bulldozed, and all that remains of the Museum of Kabul is a skeleton building; people are still determining what became of its rich collection. The gold, jewels, and coins from the excavations had been locked up safely in the vaults of the Central Bank in Kabul. It was a miracle to find these pieces intact when a team of local and international experts and archaeologists laid eyes on them in 2004. This treasure was luckily saved and is now part of an exhibition traveling around the world as it would not be safe in its homeland  (see: Bactrian Gold, The Hidden Treasures from the Museum of Kabul).

It is a sad story that clearly illustrates how the Afghans have been nearly entirely stripped of their history – a story much less known than the destructive path the IS has left behind in neighboring Iraq and Syria. Still, the drama in Afghanistan is at least as devastating and radical.