Precis (Summary) Writing – 20

Creative Writing – 78

The following passages have a total of 398 words. Write its summary in less than 140 words.

Passage

France returned more than 400 stolen artifacts to the government of Pakistan on Tuesday, including ancient busts, vases, urns and goblets, some dating to the second and third millennia BC.Many of the pieces turned up in France in September 2006, sent in parcels addressed to a gallery in Paris. The packages were intercepted by customs officers at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport and identified by the National Centre for Scientific Research as items looted from cemeteries in Pakistan‘s Indus valley.

Another consignment of pottery and terracotta pieces destined for the same gallery was stopped two weeks later. And during a search of the unnamed gallery’s premises, customs officers seized several hundred more ceramic pieces. In a ceremony held at Pakistan‘s embassy in Paris, 445 artifacts were handed back to Pakistan on Tuesday, with an estimated value of 139,000 euros ($157,000). “It is indeed a special moment for Pakistan,” said Muhammad Majad Aziz Qazi, the head of mission. “It is also an emotional moment for us. We believe, today, that a part of Pakistan’s heritage is coming back to its homeland.”

Qazi said arrangements were being made to send the treasures back to Islamabad as soon as possible. “Hopefully soon … you will find them in one of the best museums that we have in Pakistan.” While the gallery that was the intended recipient of the loot has not been named, French officials said it was likely to have been hit with a fine of between 100,000 and 200,000 euros for receiving stolen goods. Aurore Didier, a specialist in South Asian archaeology, said Baluchistan in southern Pakistan had suffered widespread theft of ancient artifacts, making it ever harder to gather anthropological data on the peoples who once lived there.

“It was not only greedy smugglers that encouraged it but the international art market as well,” she said. “These lootings used to be prevalent in this region of Baluchistan.” French President Emmanuel Macron has made a point of seeking to return ancient artworks to regions where they originated. Last November, he announced a plan to give dozens of objects held in French museums back to Benin, a former French colony. A number of artifacts have been returned this year to Peru and from 2014-2017 more than 250 pieces of Egyptian antiquity were returned to Cairo after they were discovered in the baggage of a British resident travelling to London.

Answers

Priceless smuggled artifacts belonging to the second or third millennium BC have been seized by French customs. Some already with the unnamed Paris museums have been seized too. All these were formally returned to the Pakistan embassy there. The museums possessing and receiving the items have been heavily fined for being complicit in the crime. Pakistan’s strife-torn Balochistan has been the source of much of this treasure. This has saddened the archaeologists working to re-construct Baloch history. Both the smugglers and the buying museums in France are to blame for this illicit trade.

The recovered artifacts numbering around 450 will be exhibited in Pakistani museum soon.

Under President Macron, France has returned stolen archaeological treasures to the source countries, such as Benin, a former French colony, and Egypt. The Egyptian items were found in the baggage of a London-bound passenger. [140 words]