A seven-day exhibition of 185 artifacts, including 42 returned from the Guimet Museum in France, is being held in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka. Abdul Khaleque, official of Archaeology Department of the Bangladeshi government, told Xinhua Tuesday the artifacts were collected from different museums in the country, many of them date back to 1000 years. The exhibits include terra-cotta and stone monuments, representing different religions like Hinduism and Buddhism. The exhibition was organized by the National Museum and inaugurated on Monday by Cultural Affairs Adviser Rashed K Choudhury. The exhibition is free to the public. The organizer said the purpose of the exhibition is to allow people to view the valuable relics directly. The 185 artifacts were supposed to be exhibited in Guimet Museum in January of this year, and first consignment of 42 artifacts were sent to Paris last year. When the second consignment of 145 artifacts was delivered to Air France in Dhaka Zia International Airport on Dec. 21, two terra-cotta monuments were found stolen. Later the police found the whereabouts of the two monuments which were broken into pieces. After the stolen incident, the then cultural adviser Ayub Quadri resigned and the government announced to cancel the exhibition and asked the Guimet Museum to return the 42 artifacts which were already in the museum. The 42 artifacts returned home from France on Feb. 23.