More than 1,000 artifacts including items of antique value missing from Sri Lanka’s presidential palace and prime minister’s residence
Post Date – 11:37 PM, Sun – July 9
Colombo: Sri Lanka on Sunday urged people to return or provide any information on precious cultural relics and archaeological items that went missing during mass protests against the government of then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa last July, as the island nation celebrated the ” Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Popular uprising.
Angry anti-government protesters occupied Sri Lanka’s presidential palace and the prime minister’s residence at Temple Tree in Colombo last July to protest the island nation’s worst economic crisis, resulting in the disappearance of more than 1,000 cultural relics, including items of antique and antique value. for decades.
The Presidential Media Department (PMD) said that during the occupation of the Presidential Palace in Colombo Fort by protesters from July 9-14, 2022, various valuable cultural relics and archaeological items went missing, including coats of arms related to former governors and presidents of Sri Lanka.
Presidential Secretary Saman Ekanayake has demanded the return of any badges of archaeological or artistic value belonging to the former governor and president of Sri Lanka. The items are expected to be handed over to the presidential secretariat by July 31, the statement added.
Ekanayake stressed that keeping these official emblems beyond the stipulated period would lead to legal consequences, as illegal possession of state property is a punishable crime.
The three-month occupation of the entrance to his secretariat ended when then-President Rajapaksa fled the country on July 9. At that point, protesters began occupying more important buildings, until the military stepped in to evict them two weeks later.
The government later announced that several artifacts from the main building were missing.
Rajapaksa was replaced by incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe.
