faced with growing pressure to address the rampant looting of the countrys cultural treasures and apparent lacunae in the antiquities and art treasures act 1972 union culture minister mahesh sharma at a recent media interview revealed about the departments proposal to the cabinet to amend the act to allow india to have an open art market once we allow the trade of those antiquities in india this smuggling will stop he saidthe archaeological survey of india asi tasked with formulating the draft antiquities and art treasures regulation export and import bill 2017 has just uploaded the proposed amendments on its portal to be tabled in the forthcoming parliament sessionthe proposed amendments are shocking but not surprising the asi has formed several committees to advise it on the drafting of antiquities and art treasures exports and imports control act 20132014 and indian antiquities and art treasures act 20132014 to regulate and to promote domestic art market but has never revealed composition of these committees or minutes of their discussionsthe usage of the words art market and promotion have to be taken with a pinch of salt the current amendments skirt the real issues and instead focus on creating a market that would eventually monetise our art treasures if passed they may facilitate movement of indias art treasures into private handsas many as 10 attempts have been made by the various governments since 1985 to dilute the provisions of the act in 2011 the main pitch made by the committee headed by r n mishra was to tweak the registration of antiquities a veiled attempt to ensure free mobility of antiquities within the country there was no consensus as the negatives of such a dilution outweighed the free market call a new committee formed under justice retired mukul mudgal in 2012 never filed a conclusive report due to dissenting notes from membersthis time the asi has surprisingly not voiced any objections this considering reforms introduced by the global law enforcement agencies to control and police the art market amid growing evidence that art trafficking is significantly aided by terror networks if asi officials had ever attended the seminars of unescos unite4heritage campaign they would have known that the european union a major market for antiquities in july proposed a licensing system for the import of antiques this system would require importers to obtain a licence issued by their home state to ensure that their goods have been exported legally from the third country the proposed amendment is vague to say the least so far we have not seen any mention even in the cag report report no 18 of 2013 to do away with the process of license for antique dealers with no certification for antiquities the proposed amendment does away with any form of registering a dealer lack of background checks and mandatory filing of records provide no chance for law enforcement agencies to track sales except for an online enrolment this means that any person can take a photograph