The United States has returned over 1,400 looted artefacts valued at $10 million to India, marking a significant step in an ongoing effort to repatriate stolen cultural treasures from South and Southeast Asia. The returned artefacts include items that were previously displayed at the renowned New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, CNN reported. Among the items is a sandstone sculpture of a celestial dancer, which was smuggled from central India to London and illegally sold to a Met patron before being donated to the museum.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office stated that these artefacts were recovered through investigations into criminal trafficking networks, including those run by convicted art traffickers Subhash Kapoor and Nancy Wiener. Kapoor, an American antiquities dealer, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for operating a multimillion-dollar looting network through his New York gallery. After his arrest in Germany, Kapoor was sent to India to face charges. He is currently in custody in India following his 2022 conviction, with his extradition still pending.
William S. Walker, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations New York, emphasized the importance of the repatriation, calling it a victory in a multi-year international investigation into antiquities trafficking by one of history’s most notorious offenders.
The formal handover of the looted artefacts took place at a ceremony at New York’s Indian consulate on Wednesday. This comes after India and the United States signed their first-ever “Cultural Property Agreement” in July, aimed at curbing the illicit trafficking of antiquities from India 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 returned 297 trafficked antiquities to India, spanning a period of nearly 4,000 years, from 2000 BCE to 1900 CE. These items, primarily terracotta objects from Eastern India, also include pieces made from stone, metal, wood, and ivory. The total number of cultural artefacts returned to India from the US since 2016 now stands at 578, making the US the largest contributor in returning stolen cultural items to India.
