KABUL, Feb 4: Afghanistan put on display Saturday part of its collection of the famed 2,000-year-old Bactrian gold, the first showing in 17 years of the ancient treasure that resurfaced in 2003 after fears it had been destroyed in war.

Twenty-five items from the 2,000-piece collection were displayed for a few hours in the heavily fortified presidential palace in an exhibition that was closed to the public.

President Hamid Karzai, members of his cabinet, heads of diplomatic missions, the country’s new parliamentarians and selected media were among those invited to see the items.

Saturday’s short exhibition was intended to provide a glimpse of the collection before it is sent on a tour of Europe, perhaps this year.

“This exhibition is an important step in the introduction of Afghanistan’s rich cultural heritage to the world,” national museum director Omarakhan Massoudi said.

The last time the collection was on display was in 1989 when the communist government presented a few items to foreign diplomats to prove it had not been looted by the Russians as they retreated after a 10-year occupation.

Afghanistan collapsed into civil war three years later and the collection vanished.

Many feared it had been plundered, and perhaps melted down, during the brutal civil war in which two-thirds of the objects in the national museum disappeared.

In 2003, the central bank’s vaults were opened to reveal the collection, which had been hidden there by a few museum staff.

The 25 relics displayed Saturday, most of them dating to the first century BC, included a Bactrian Aphrodite, a intricate chained belt with buckles showing a man riding a lion, a solid gold plate, a dagger and sheath, and jewellery delicately inlaid with turquoise and garnets.

The items are still kept in the central bank vaults, as the refurbished Kabul museum is unable to display them because of inadequate facilities, including for security. —AFP