Bactrian gold sent abroad for display, safekeeping

KABUL (Tolo News): Afghan artifacts, including the Bactrian gold collection, will be sent abroad for display, said acting minister of information and culture, Mohammad Tahir Zuhair on Thursday. This comes as Mir Rahman Rahmani, the Afghan parliament speaker warned that the ancient Bactrian gold, the most precious reserve of the country, would not be safe because of corruption.

He said that the Bactrian treasure is the biggest support for the national currency. “The Bactrian gold treasure–or Afghanistan’s support for the national currency–must be sent to a reliable country for safekeeping because Afghanistan’s Central Bank lacks credibility,” Rahmani said.

On Thursday, Mohammad Tahir Zuhair said that “the treasury is only between 6 to 7kg but it has value because of its history.” “It will not be robbed and it is already registered under the name of Afghanistan,” Zuhair said, adding that “we will send it abroad for display as soon as we make an agreement.”

Displaying the Bactrian treasury abroad has brought in over 350 million Afs ($4.5 million) for Afghanistan. It was displayed in 29 museums in 13 countries over the past 13 years. The Bactrian treasury was returned home about a year ago. The Bactrian gold is recognized as one of the biggest collections of gold in the world and was discovered 4 decades ago in the Tela Tapa area of Sherberghan district, the center of northern Jawzjan province.

The collection is composed of jewels and gold and was discovered from a royal cemetery. 7 corpses were decorated with thousands of pieces of gold. The collection is composed of 21,145 pieces of gold. The treasure belonged to the Kushan empire. The Kushan Empire was formed by the Yuezhi in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century.