Mostly fakes. Stelae representing Bodhisattvas from a collection of confiscated Gandharan material

Abstract

This article presents some previously unpublished Gandharan pieces depicting Bodhisattvas from a collection of material confiscated by the Department of Archaeology and Museums in Islamabad in collaboration with the Customs of Pakistan, Directorate General of Intelligence & Investigation-FBR-Regional Office, Sukkur. The confiscated material comprises more than eleven hundred cultural items, including painted ceramics from Balochistan, ceramics from the Islamic period, glazed tiles, detached Buddha heads, statues of Buddhas in different postures and in different media (schist, stucco, terracotta, and bronze), and other Gandharan objects (friezes, panels, stupa models, relic caskets). Some pieces, including some of those presented in this article, are fakes. The article also contains a brief note on the ethical issues related to these materials, and a possible dating and provenance of the few authentic pieces.