For Art's Sake

Visitors to a modest brick house on Haupstrasse in Bubendorf, a small village near Basel, are in for a bit of culture shock. The house, in the middle of the mountainous Swiss countryside, is the home of Afghanistan Museum and contains hundreds of rare religious and cultural relics from Afghanistan. The works were sent here throughout the 1990s as the fundamentalist Taliban Islamic group begin systematically destroying the country's historical treasures. "This is the Afghans' temporary home away from home," says curator Paul Bucherer, 59, a Swiss architect who retired last year to devote himself full-time to the museum. "But everything here will be returned as soon as it is safe to do so."

That may be a while yet. In March when the Taliban blasted away two giant statues of the Buddha in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, UNESCO called the act "a crime against culture" and reversed its policy discouraging the removal of historical artifacts from a country, no matter how unstable. The decision allowed Afghan art to be temporarily relocated to safety beyond the country's borders.

Enter Bucherer and his unlikely Swiss sanctuary. Having traveled extensively in Afghanistan since the 1970s, Bucherer became close to some of the country's highest-ranking officials. He was asked by concerned Afghans on both sides of the conflict to store the artefacts in Switzerland temporarily and display them in a museum. "I hesitated for a long time because I knew this would be a difficult task," he says. "But in the end I realized what a unique opportunity this was and that it was my duty to safeguard the objects entrusted to me." The makeshift museum Bucherer founded in his hometown opened last October, after the Swiss federal and local governments donated about $400,000 for the purchase of a building once belonging to a construction company. Bucherer contributed another $100,000 of his own money.

Bucherer does not remove the works from Afghanastan himself because, he says, "I don't want to be branded a thief." Instead, Afghan officials, private individuals ships items to him in Switzerland — and the works are his responsibility from the Swiss border onward. Some items are donated by Afghans living abroad, but none are purchased. Bucherer runs the museum himself on a shoe-string budget with the help of several volunteers. He says he can't afford to advertise, and word-of-mouth publicity brings about 100 visitors a week. What those visitors discover is a treasure trove of archeological and cultural artefacts dating back to 1500 B.C. Among the ancient objects on display is a 3,500-year-old stone statue of a man and a bronze object dating from the same era that was probably used for imprints on dough. Also on show is the wooden walking stick that once belonged to Abdur Rahman Khan, the founder of the modern Afghan state, who ruled at the end of the 19th century. It is said that Khan, a shrewd and forceful leader who did much to promote national unity, used to approve new laws by tapping with his stick. The Bubendorf museum also houses a 14,000-volume library and serves as an informal research institute for students of Afghan culture.

According to Bucherer, the museum's goal is not just to display ancient objects but to document and preserve the Afghan way of life through the centuries. An exhibit of ornate chairs and stools, for example, sheds light on Afghan social customs. Afghans usually eat sitting on the floor. A diner would be allowed to use a stool only if he were able to feed the whole village. Feeding the village twice would earn him the right to sit in a chair. Elsewhere in the museum, displays of richly embroidered rugs and garments, prayer books and elaborately carved musical instruments evoke the nation's artistic traditions and religious practices. Rifles from the Anglo-Afghan uprisings of the 1880s are reminders of the country's violent past — and its troubled present.

When Afghanastan's current troubles pass, Bucherer will repatriate the collection with the help of unesco and the Swiss government. Until then, he is focusing his efforts on improving the museum's security system so that the most precious items — ancient ivory and turquoise artefacts now kept in a bank vault — can be shown to the public. "I am dedicated to helping preserve Afghanistan's patrimony for as long as the circumstances make it necessary," he says. "But I can't help wishing it wasn't necessary."