The Times of Ceylon
Colombo, Thursday, June 23rd, 1955
Museum: Likelihood of fakes
MUSEUM scandal BARED
Did Gold Turn to Silver, Gems to Stone ?
Probe Team Makes Report
The Museum Committee of Investigations in a confidential report to the Ministry of Education states that the possibility of genuine articles having been substituted by spurious ones cannot be ruled out.
The report adds "The Present officers of the Museum could easily have absolved themselves from all responsibility for such possible substitution if they had in the normal course of duties, observed glaring discrepancies and reported their discoveries to the proper authorities on their own initiative.
The committee states that the explanation offered by the officers is that officers in the past had been misled by vendors that the objects in question were genuine.
Contention
According to the report they maintain that the articles in question are the identical ones handed down from their predecessors in office in spite of the fact that the articles do not correspond fully to the description in the main inventory.
The committee states that although no scientific verification of objects has been conducted it is of opinion that it is not improbable that substitutions and losses have taken place at certain stages, but the responsibility for such occurrences cannot be fixed on the present regime beyond reasonable doubt.
It is not unlikely that a scientific verification will reveal a wider range of substitutions and losses but even then our remarks on the question of responsibility will still hold good"
Recommendations
The report adds "the first and foremost step that we recommend is that an efficient system registering valuables be followed, The present system of inventorising objects with unscientific descriptions is hopelessly inadequate"
The committees advise is that this job be entrusted to a team of foreign or local experts.
The committee has also observed that there have been cases of gold being listed as silver gilt, precious stones as pieces of glass and vice versa.
Even coins have been incorrectly listed and the general result is to make "confusion worse confounded"
Findings
Here are the Committee's main findings
- (1) The present system of registration needs radical improvement
- (2) Officers without qualifications should not be entrusted with responsible work in registration of articles
- (3) The absence of test checks may have led to irregularities and abuses.
- (4) The procedure of taking over by officers has been only formal and no attempt has been made to comply with the Financial Regulations.
- (5) The failure to take ordinary precautions during the evacuations in the last war was indicative of the lack of ordinary care and responsibility on the part of the museum authorities"
The committee consisted of Mr V. P. Vitachi, Mr T Devadasan, Mr V Kumarasinkam, and
Mr D. B. Pattiaratchi
Transcribed from digital photograph of
original 1955 June 23rd Times of Ceylon Newspaper. This front-page Headline was found serendipitously while researching the Lankan media reports on the 1955 June 20th Total Solar Eclipse.