Police recover huge cache of illegal artifacts hoarded by American explorer
Nepal Police on Friday said it confiscated vast range of illegally possessed ancient idols, artifacts and woodcrafts of archaeological importance including skins and bones of endangered wildlife from the rented apartments of an American national and famous explorer Ian Baker in the capital city.
Interestingly Ian Baker, 41, who has been reportedly staying in the country since many years, is a world-renowned explorer, novelist and a contributor for the National Geographic and several other magazines.
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More on Ian Baker
According to a press released by Metropolitan Police Crime Division, Hanumandhoka, Kathmandu on May 23, 2008 – the police have confiscated over 100 different items of such rare artifacts, hides and bones from two of the houses Baker rented in Naxal and Baluwataar.
Here are some pictures of “Ian Baker Museum”, taken by Dipesh Shrestha.
May 24, 2008 at 7:34 pm |
Wow, what an amazing news story. I was blown away that he hoarded that much stuff illegally. He sounds like a very weird person that he slept on a leopard skin pillow. Not that the leopard skin is bad, that doesn’t bother me as leopards are beautiful and should remain alive…. but that he was THAT obsessed with all this stuff and hoarded it illegally and tried to steal it from a country that was not his.
May 25, 2008 at 6:13 am |
More news coming in the media – although unconfirmed – that some high ranking police officials used to visit him in his flats and that his legal counselor from New York has made contact with those officials to subdue the case and that Baker is willing to pay any amount of money to get “his” stuffs back.
May 30, 2008 at 12:11 am |
Dude Why does stuff like this get swept under the rug. This immigrant ..(I feel good saying that) to our country steals shit that belongs to us comes here makes money and calls people like us leechers who are willing to work and make our money. someone needs to mail national geography magazine , seriously. This guy needs to be locked up.
June 2, 2008 at 2:00 pm |
Headquarters
National Geographic Society
1145 17th Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036-4688
this is the mailing adress. you should let them know or they might know abt it.
July 24, 2008 at 11:28 pm |
Nice work Umes Dai…
Stumbled upon it when i was surfing ktmROCKS…
i always knew u had a thing for taking pictures n journalism…
Jholay dai..
hehe
September 23, 2008 at 2:41 pm |
does anyone know what’s happened to this case? Has Baker returned to Nepal?
September 24, 2008 at 9:38 am |
Baker has not returned to Nepal. The last I heard, Nepal Police has registered a case against Baker, but without him being present, the case can’t really proceed can it?
I know it’s fucking hilarious to even imagine but still the question remains – will the USA extradite Baker to Nepal so that he can be indicted here and sent to Nepali prison?
March 6, 2009 at 8:25 pm |
I agree with everyone here that the big cats should be protected, no question. There are all kinds of people in the world that have strange habits and this man seems to be one of them. However, I do believe we need to stop setting sentence on people before they are tried. Sometimes what read in papers and other news sources are wrong about their facts. As a follow-up…I would like to see people that kill the cats taken to justice also. I know the argument that if people like him did not purchase the items no one would kill them, two wrongs do not make a right. With all due respect, I am on the side of the big cats being protected but not at the expense of justice for all.
March 23, 2009 at 8:48 pm |
are you all retarded? have you searched for any articles written about the case from another point of view?
if you are Nepali, you should know how corrupt the police are. second, Ian Baker NEVER tried to take anything out of Nepal. and when you rent old apartments in nice areas, they frequently have artifacts already in the house. not to mention, it is easy to walk on the street and buy most of the items in the markets. who are they selling to? unless aliens are shopping there, only foreigners and Nepali people! Baker is not of of the fly-by-night foreign collectors buying things and taking stuff out of the country. he has been in Nepal since 1977!!!! Baker never made any attempt to hide the items he purchased. he writes about this stuff! he isnt attempting to create his own museum! he is a well-known Buddhist scholar and half of the things have been given to him by lamas and monks for spiritual purposes! he preserves Nepal better than most of you!
April 15, 2009 at 12:31 pm |
The topic is quite trendy on the Internet at the moment. What do you pay the most attention to while choosing what to write ?