Out of site, out of mind.
Do the Nepalese think I’m going to travel to Nepal to see a few statues?
They would have been better to charge Britain a fee to maintain them and get people interested thorough examples of their culture.
You have to understand that theft of statues in nepal has been massive, most sculptures are in outdoor areas along streets and alleys and people would never have dared steal any but when nepal opened uo for tourism after ww2 art thieves saw how easily unsecured the art was there and most thefts were in the 70’s and 80’s
https://rememberingthelost.com/map-of-thefts/
https://huntingtonarchive.org/resources/lostStolen/nepal.php
https://www.asianart.com/associations/kvpt/stolen/toc.html
Do you think the Nepalese care if you travel to their country?
They want their art returned.
Some of the sites in Nepal are on my Asian history geek travel list, after Cambodia (Angkor Wat) and Laos (Wat Phu). (Obviously important sites in Thailand like Sukhothai are there too).
So I’m glad to see historical artifacts being returned.
This is a different case from the Elgin marbles or Egyptian artifacts.
The idol would still be worshipped in Nepal. It’s going back to the temple it was in for over a thousand years.