The looting of cultural heritage is a practice as ancient as warfare itself and with the development of the world’s great civilizations, the proverbial “spoils of war” have often included national and cultural treasures – a reality India is all too familiar with.
With the Indian art market growing at a phenomenal rate the demand for art treasures has expanded to include a lower price segment and regardless of the age of the works these have begun to command value. Hence, the illegal trade, which was earlier restricted to royal collections in the process of being disbursed, has now begun to impact anything that comes with a tag of being “cultural heritage”. There are multiple reports of thefts taking place in locked up palaces of Rajasthan or originals in museums that are sold off and replaced with cheap fakes.