Auction of contested African artifacts going ahead in Paris
Paris: A Nigerian commission has called for the cancellation of an auction on Monday of sacred Nigerian statues in Paris, which it alleges were stolen.
Christie’s auction house has defended the sale, saying the artworks were legitimately acquired and the sale will go ahead.
French courts have consistently ruled in favor of auction houses in recent years whose sales of sacred objects, such as Hopi tribal masks, were contested by rights groups and representatives of the tribes.
A Princeton scholar, professor Chika Okeke-Agulu, alongside Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments, raised alarm earlier this month that the objects were looted during the Biafran war in the late 1960’s.
Christie’s wrote earlier this month to the Nigerian commission, saying the sale would go ahead.
Okeke-Agulu, who is a member of the Igbo tribe, said the objects were taken through an act of violence from his home state of Anambra and that they should not be sold. An online petition with over 2,000 signatures is demanding that the auction be halted.
The petition said as the world awakens to the reality of systemic racial injustice and inequality, thanks to the #BlackLivesMatter movement, we must not forget that it is not just the black body, but also black culture, identity and especially art that is being misappropriated.
It claims that between 1967 and 1970, as Nigeria’s Biafran civil war raged and while more than 3 million civilians were dying, a renowned European treasure hunter was in Biafra “on a hunting spree for our cultural heritage. Christie’s could not be immediately reached for comment on Monday. (AP)
Indian visitor stuck in UAE with $30,493 hospital bill
Dubai: A jobless Indian visitor to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is in desperate need of financial help to settle an outstanding hospital bill of 112,000 dirham ($30,493), a media report said on Monday.
Sutapa Patra, 27, from West Bengal underwent treatment for a number of conditions including colitis, pancreatitis and severe sepsis, said the Gulf News report. She also complained of severe stomach ache when her roommates at an accommodation where she was staying in Karama admitted her to a private hospital. Owing to her pre-diabetic condition, her condition became more complicated and surgery had to be performed immediately.
Speaking to Gulf News, Patra said she came to the UAE in November 2019 on a three-month long visit visa.
She was promised a job of a chef in a hotel by a recruitment agent in India. Unfortunately she was duped by the agent and when she landed in UAE she was told there was no job.
Instead she was made to work as a domestic help for a family. Patra claimed she was not paid a salary and given only one meal a day to eat.
Patra she was now being looked after by some families in Dubai and one of them tried to find her a job in the UAE.
“Unfortunately due to the pandemic situation in the UAE, my application for a work permit was cancelled. Added to this my visit visa also expired in the middle of February. I just want my bill to be settled and I want to return home to India,” she told Gulf News. (IANS)