A row has erupted between Paris and Dhaka after the theft of two ancient statues led to the cancellation of a ground-breaking exhibition of Hindu artefacts. Bangladesh scrapped the exhibition at the Guimet Museum, amid claims that France could not be trusted with some of the country’s finest cultural treasures.

French officials pointed out, however, that the 1,500-year-old statues were stolen amid insufficient security controls in Dhaka, and claimed that the exhibition had fallen victim to a plot involving art-traffickers and opponents of the Bangladeshi regime.

The terracotta artworks disappeared from Zia international airport, Dhaka, at the weekend before they could be loaded on to an Air France aircraft for Paris, where the first important international exhibition of Bangladeshi relics was due to open next month. Police in Dhaka said yesterday that they had arrested eight members of a criminal gang in connection with the thefts and had raided premises in search of them.

Detectives also questioned cleaners who claimed that they had found the objects, broken and in a rubbish dump.

The theft of the two representations of Vishnu, a supreme Hindu dieity regarded as the lord of peace and truth, sparked a political crisis in Bangladesh and prompted the resignation of Ayub Quadri, the Cultural Affairs Minister.

The statues were insured for a total of $65,000 (£33,000), although art experts said that they were so rare that it would be almost impossible to sell them. Bangladeshi commentators said that the French authorities were legally responsible for transporting the artefacts to Paris and were therefore to blame for the security lapse.

With the controversy over the loss of the statues increasing in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi Government withdrew authorisation for 143 remaining relics to leave the country and asked the Guimet Museum to return the 42 objects that had already arrived safely.

Vincent Lefèvre, curator of the exhibition, Masterpieces from the Ganges Delta, said that he had fallen into a trap designed to discredit the French. “If the plane had taken off on time, then the disappearance would have been discovered in Paris and it would have been very easy to blame France. This is a very well-organised sting.”

Jean-François Jarrige, director of the Guimet, said that his counterparts in Bangladesh had been “disloyal” throughout the five-year preparation for the exhibition, which had already cost his museum €600,000 (£440,000). “We are dealing with a plot,” he said.

French authorities believe that the thefts were organised by corrupt Bangladeshi officials colluding with art-traffickers and government critics.

In a statement, the French Embassy in Dhaka pointed to “a conspiracy to embarrass France and Bangladesh”.

The exhibition of statues, paintings, manuscripts and coins dating from the 3rd century BC to the 19th century had already provoked fierce debate in Bangladesh, where opponents attempted to stop the loan of the artefacts with legal action.

Protests continued even after the Supreme Court approved the transfer of the artefacts to France in October. Shamsuzzaman Khan, a former director of the Bangladesh National Museum, said: “These are masterpieces and very valuable to our cultural heritage,” he said. “The Government should not have agreed to send them abroad.”

Intellectuals and artists also opposed the exhibition, saying that France had never returned works loaned for display in the 1950s.

Culture clash

— A Royal Academy show of Russian-owned paintings was thrown into doubt this month when Russia stopped the loan, fearing claims that the works had been looted during the 1917 Revolution. Britain promised to fast-track legislation to give the works “immunity from seizure”

— Organisers of an exhibition in Hamburg of Terracotta Army figures apologised after Chinese officials said they had not lent any. They turned out to be fakes

— The Greek Government renewed its appeal this month for the return of the Elgin Marbles, friezes removed from the Parthenon by the British Ambassador in 1806. The British Museum renewed its refusal to return them

— Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, is urging the “repatriation” of the 800-year-old Lewis Chessmen in the British Museum

— In 2005 Germany appealed again for the return of art taken by the Red Army in 1945

Source: Times archives

Times Recommends

• Michael Jackson: Not the final chapter
• Indian Army spends10m rupees on golf buggies
• Brüno toned down for 15 rating