Rabindra Puri has long been campaigning to establish a ‘Museum of Stolen Art’. The theft of Nepali artefacts, often portraying deities, robs communities of their cultural heritage and leaves them grappling with loss and violation.
Puri has been at the forefront of efforts to recover Nepal’s stolen cultural treasures, driven by the stories of loss he has encountered in communities nationwide. For example, an older woman who had worshipped a Saraswati idol in Pharping for years was devastated when she discovered the statue’s head had been stolen overnight. Imagine a beheaded goddess. What a shock.