More than 1,000 artefacts, including items of vintage and antique value, have been reported missing from Sri Lanka’s presidential palace and Prime Minister’s official residence at Temple Trees here after anti-government protesters occupied the premises earlier this month, police said on Saturday.
On July 9, anti-government agitators took over the residences of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and ex-Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe after storming into the premises and setting fire to one of the buildings, protesting the government’s handling of the unprecedented economic crisis.
According to initial investigations, at least 1,000 items of value, including rare artefacts, are missing from the presidential palace as well as the Prime Minister’s official residence, web portal Colombo Page quoted police sources as saying.
What is compounding the agony for the investigative officers is that the Sri Lankan department of archaeology does not have a detailed record of the antiques and artefacts at the presidential palace, even though it has been gazetted as a place of archaeological importance, the report said.
‘Week’ target
Sri Lanka’s cabinet has met for the first time under newly elected President Wickremesinghe and discussed ways to normalise the situation in the economic-crisis hit country within a week by regularising functions of government institutions, such as the Prime Minister’s Office and the presidential secretariat, and schools, according to a media report on Saturday.
