The United States has returned more than 1,400 looted artefacts, valued at $10 million, to India, marking a significant milestone in the ongoing efforts to repatriate stolen cultural treasures from South and Southeast Asia. Among the returned items are pieces that were once displayed at the prestigious New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, according to CNN. Notable among these is a sandstone sculpture of a celestial dancer, which had been smuggled from central India to London and sold illegally to a Met patron before being donated to the museum.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office confirmed that these artefacts were recovered as part of investigations into criminal trafficking networks, including those operated by convicted art traffickers Subhash Kapoor and Nancy Wiener. Kapoor, a notorious American antiquities dealer, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for running a multimillion-dollar looting operation through his New York gallery. Following his arrest in Germany, Kapoor was extradited to India to face charges and is currently in custody there after being convicted in 2022, with his extradition still pending.
William S. Walker, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations New York, highlighted the significance of the repatriation, calling it a major achievement in a multi-year international investigation into antiquities trafficking, involving one of the most notorious figures in the trade.
The formal handover of the looted artefacts took place during a ceremony at New York’s Indian consulate on Wednesday. This follows the signing of the first-ever “Cultural Property Agreement” between India and the United States in July, designed to combat the illicit trafficking of Indian antiquities to the US. The agreement was signed by Indian Ministry of Culture Secretary Govind Mohan and US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti.
In September, the United States had already returned 297 trafficked antiquities to India, spanning nearly 4,000 years from 2000 BCE to 1900 CE. These items, largely terracotta objects from Eastern India, also include artefacts made from stone, metal, wood, and ivory. With the latest return, the total number of cultural items repatriated to India from the US since 2016 now stands at 578, making the US the leading contributor to the return of stolen cultural heritage to India.
