Cultural Affairs and National Heritage Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena yesterday admitted that an antique sword belonging to the Archaeological Department had gone missing.

Minister Yapa said this could not be identified as a sword, but a 125 centimetre long dagger that had been believed to be of the Kandy period.

In reply to a question raised by JVP MP Lakshman Nipunarachchi, who said that a Nataraja statue of Hindu God Siva and an ancient sword taken out for display at the Deyata Kirula exhibition had been stolen, the Minister said the Nataraja statue is intact.

The dagger was inside a wooden sheath which is actually a walking stick, the Minister said. It had been donated by Douglas Ranasinghe and later was displayed at the E. W. Perera Memorial Archaeological Museum in Kotte. It was among 16 other artifacts sent to be displayed at the Seethawaka Abhimana and was brought back to Colombo with the purpose of sending it for the Deyata Kirula Exhibition. The artifacts had been kept inside the office room of the Archaeological Director, Excavations and Museums, in the head office premises in Colombo. Since it was too long to be put in the almirah where other items had been locked in, the dagger was left beside the almirah. The dagger had gone missing from there and a complaint had been made at the Kurunduwatte police under Entry No 90/140 GCIB. Police had not arrested anyone so far. The Archaeological Department is conducting a separate investigation.

JVP Parliamentary Group Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that a dagger cannot be as long as 125cm which is nearly 4 feet two inches. Such weapons are called anything but swords and accused the Minister of attempting to belittle the importance of the issue. "We call them swords Minister, but if you insist what had gone missing was a dagger of unusual length, then its importance must be very high, because none had ever heard of such a dagger. So better we find it, he said.

Speaker W. J. M. Lokubandara said that this should be made to the notice of the Inspector General of Police and action must be taken to find the missing artifact.