In praise of… the national museum in Kabul

Emerging from two decades of war and displacement, the bronze-age trowels, 11th-century incense burners and fabulously engraved marble blocks on show yesterday in two rooms of Afghanistan's national museum, represent what their greatest chronicler, the US historian Nancy Hatch Dupree, calls the inner strength of the Afghan nation. They have had quite a journey. Looted during the 1990s, spirited abroad, and impounded by customs officials at Heathrow over an 11-day period in 2004, they have had to wait another five years before the museum was deemed secure enough to house them. It still is not safe enough for the Bactrian Gold hoard, a collection of bracelets and jewellery from the first century BC, which were hidden in the presidential palace and managed to evade the attentions of the Taliban during their period in power. None of the pieces on show are part of the museum's original collection. The truth is more prosaic. Most of the items are thought to have been looted, because no one in government paid any attention to their cultural heritage. What matters now is that the display prompts museum curators from around the world to start returning the original pieces. It was once one of the greatest collections of antiquity in the world. Restoring and protecting it should rank high on the list of priorities of western governments. They can not unpack democracy from the ramp of a Chinook. It is in their gift, however, to restore a proud nation's cultural heritage.