Hidden Afghanistan
The Collections of
the National Museum Kabul

The Prince Claus Fund, together with Oxfam Novib, financed Dari and Pashtu translations of the Exhibition catalogue. Dari and Pashtu are the principle languages spoken in Afghanistan. With these catalogue translations, a great deal of important background information on cultural heritage will become available to the Afghan people.

At the opening night of the exhibition a copy of the catalogue was presented to HRH the Prince of Orange by Ernst Veen, Director of The Nieuwe Kerk.

This book gives a breathtaking survey of the rich history and arts of ancient Afghanistan, revealed by a series of great archaeological excavations. This superb artistic legacy is the result of the encounter of very different cultural traditions in the past millennia over the vast area now called Afghanistan.The book presents magnificent art objects dating from the Bronze Age, the Bactrian civilisation, the Hellenistic period, to the Kushan Empire, featuring four famous sites:Tepe Fullol (c. 2000 BC),Ai Khanum (4th to 2nd century BC),Tillia Tepe (c. 1st century AD), and Begram (c. 1st century AD). Also, special attention is paid to the spectacular story of the return of many objects to the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul. Believed to be lost forever, these items had in fact been evacuated during twenty years of civil war.Only after the defeat of the Taliban did they reappear from the hiding places that had been kept secret all that time.
In 2004, the National Museum’s director,Omara Khan Massoudi, received a Prince Claus Award for his outstanding professional dedication and personal bravery in working with the museum’s staff to save some of the world’s finest cultural treasures. Read More about Omara Khan Massoudi

The Prince Claus Fund organised three evenings in collaboration with the nieuwe Kerk related to the exhibition Hidden Afghanistan. On 13 March 2008 Museum Director Omara Khan Massoudi will be in conversation with Youri Albrecht about the preservation of the collection of the National Museum of Kabul during the Taliban regime. read more

 

 

 

At the opening night of the exhibition a copy of the catalogue was presented to HRH the Prince of Orange by Ernst Veen, Director of The Nieuwe Kerk. Written on the package is A Nation Stays Alive When its Culture Stays Alive

Details

Edited by Pierre Cambon
Contributions by Jean-François Jarrige, Paul Bernard Schiltz, Véronique Schiltz, and Omara Khan Massoudi

Published in conjunction with the exhibition “Hidden Afghanistan”
at the Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam (December 2007 – April 2008)
Dari & Pashtu edition made possible by Prince Claus Fund and Oxfam Novib

288 pages, 447 illustrations, mostly in color

Links

www.oxfamnovib.nl

www.nieuwekerk.nl