PATNA: Hundreds of antiquities kept in the store room of the Patna Museum are missing. These antiquities had been found in various excavations conducted at Katra (Muzaffarpur), Taradih (Bodh Gaya) and Balirajgarh (Darbhanga) during the 1980s and 1990s.
Surprisingly, all these antiquities are not catalogued in any of the records of the state archaeology department. These antiquities were kept in two separate dilapidated rooms located on the backyard of the Patna Museum building for the last several years.
These rooms are still locked from outside. Glasses and iron rods of the windows on the back side of the rooms are completely broken. Barring a few broken pillars and terracotta items on iron trays, nothing is left inside the rooms.
The empty rakes and panels are lying unattended in the dirty rooms. "Nobody will be able to tell you how many antiquities were kept in the rooms for years.
