🏛️ Cabinet Appoints Panel to Reclaim Colonial-Era Sri Lankan Artefacts Overseas

• Overview: The Cabinet has approved the appointment of a special advisory panel, the "Committee for the Restitution of Sri Lankan Cultural Heritage Currently Held Overseas," to recover Sri Lankan artefacts and cultural objects taken abroad, particularly during the colonial era. • Institutional Framework: • Headed by the Additional Secretary (Cultural Promotion and Foreign Affairs) of the Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs Ministry. • Executed under the 1970 UNESCO Convention on prohibiting the illicit transfer and export of cultural property. • Bilateral & Historical Context: • Facilitates direct ongoing negotiations with the relevant Dutch restitution committee. • Builds on the 2023 recovery of six key artefacts from the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands, which included Lewke Disawa’s cannon, two large guns, two kastane swords with scabbards, and a sheath knife.