Nepal, Sept. 20 -- On 16 September, Nepal's cybersphere woke up rattled and divided after an explosive investigation in Himal Southasian by Erin L. Thompson exposing the deeply compromised legacy of American scholar and Nepal expert Mary Shepherd Slusser.

The piece forced Nepalis, expatriates and the art world to confront an uncomfortable truth about the scholars who have written the history of Nepal's heritage, and the extractive systems they upheld.

When criminologists Emiline Smith and Erin L Thompson published their paper, A Case Study of Academic Facilitation of the Global Illicit Trade in Cultural Objects: Mary Slusser in Nepal, in the International Journal of Cultural Property in 2023, it ignited fierce conversation, mostly insi...