Pakistan, July 30 -- On Monday, the Senate Standing Committee on National Heritage and Culture was told that 513 archaeological objects smuggled from Pakistan had been repatriated from the United States in several phases, most of them associated with the Gandhara civilisation. A museum is now being proposed for their display. Yet the more consequential demand from the parliamentary committee concerns neither architecture nor exhibition: it wanted to know who removed these artefacts and how much of Pakistan's material past remains unaccounted for.

That inquiry should not be allowed to end with a list of recovered sculptures and an estimate of their market value. The returned collection is evidence from a transnational crime scene.

Archae...