[MSN] Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov has ordered academics to seek the return of a collection of ancient Persian artefacts known as the Oxus Treasure from the British Museum.

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Tajik leader wants treasure from British Museum
Thu Apr 5, 2007 4:33PM BST
DUSHANBE (Reuters) - Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov has ordered academics
to seek the return of a collection of ancient Persian artefacts known as the
Oxus Treasure from the British Museum.

Rakhmonov's official Web site, www.president.tj, said he had made the
comments during a visit this week to Takhti-Sangin which lies on the Amu
Darya (or Oxus) River on the Tajik-Afghan border. The treasure was found at
nearby Takht-i Kuwad.

"He underlined that measures should be taken to organise an exhibition of
the Oxus Treasure and for its subsequent return from London to its
homeland," the Web site said.

According to the British Museum, the treasure dates from the fifth and
fourth centuries B.C. and is the most important surviving collection of
Persian metalwork from the time of the Achaemenid empire, which stretched
from Egypt to Afghanistan.

It was not clear whether Rakhmonov intended to make a formal demand for the
artefacts to be brought to Tajikistan.

Rakhmonov, in power since 1992, has lately sought to emphasise his Persian
roots, announcing that he planned to change his name to "Rakhmon" and urging
compatriots to follow suit by cutting Russian-style endings like -ov from
their surnames.

Greece has long urged the British Museum to return the Elgin or Parthenon
marbles, a collection of friezes and sculptures removed from the Acropolis
above Athens by the British diplomat Lord Elgin 200 years ago.

The gold and silver of the Oxus Treasure was bequeathed to the British
Museum in the 19th century by a British major-general from the
Archaeological Survey of India and a collector and former curator of the
museum.

http://uk.reuters.com/