Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon has instructed archaeologists to secure the return from the British Museum of an ancient collection of artifacts known as the Oxus Treasure, the Middle East Times web-site reported quoting a release by Rakhmon’s press service.

The Tajik leader had visited the site on the Afghan border from where Tajik officials believe the collection originates and told archaeologists to “organize an exhibition of the historic Oxus Treasure and also its return from London to its homeland,” the press service said in a statement.

The Oxus Treasure, which sits in the Iranian galleries of London’s British Museum, is being sought by this former Soviet republic as it tries to obtain World Heritage status for the ancient archaeological site of Takhti Sangin.

The museum’s Internet site describes the collection, which includes a gold scabbard, model chariots, finger-rings, and coins, as the most important surviving collection of Achaemenid Persian metalwork, dating from the 5th and 4th centuries BC.

But the museum disputes Tajikistan’s claims that the collection comes from Takhti Sangin, saying that it is from another site also on the Tajik-Afghan border, a British museum official said.

The Oxus is the ancient name of today’s Amu Darya River, which flows along the border.

The Oxus Treasure was obtained for the museum in the 19th century by British collectors, among them a political officer in Afghanistan who bought a gold amulet now part of the collection from a group of merchants who he had rescued from bandits.

“We don’t see any evidence for it coming from Takhti Sangin. Russian 19th century travelers’ reports indicate it was more likely from Takht-i Kuwad,” museum curator St. John Simpson said.

Rakhmon recently changed his name from Rakhmonov in a bid to remove Russian influences from Tajik surnames.

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