As part of an ongoing initiative to bring back stolen art from countries in South and Southeast Asia, the United States on Wednesday announced that it has returned more than 1,400 looted art works worth $10 million to India. according to cnnThe smuggled goods recovered included objects that were recently seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. One of them is a sandstone statue of a divine dancer that was smuggled to London from Central India before being illegally sold to one of the Met’s patrons and donated to the museum.
In a press release, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said the restitution resulted from “several ongoing investigations” into racketeering networks, including the networks run by convicted art trafficker Nancy Weiner and antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Was sentenced to jail. Running a network of loot worth millions of dollars through his New York gallery.
After his arrest in Germany in 2011, Subhash Kapoor was sent to Tamil Nadu to face charges. The US DA’s office obtained an arrest warrant for him in 2012, however, he remains in custody in India, pending extradition to the US.
“Today’s repatriation marks another victory in the multi-year international investigation into smuggled antiquities by one of the greatest criminals in history,” William Walker, New York Special Agent in Charge of federal Homeland Security Investigations, said in a press statement. cnn,
The stolen items were formally returned in a ceremony at the Indian Consulate in New York.
Notably, in July, the US and India signed an agreement to protect cultural property by preventing illegal trade and streamlining the process of returning stolen antiquities to India.
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America returned 297 stolen antiquities to India in September. These antiquities span a time period of approximately 4000 years from 2000 BC to 1900 AD and have their origins in different parts of India. Most of the antiquities were terracotta artefacts from eastern India, while others were made of stone, metal, wood and ivory and belonged to different parts of the country.
“In recent times, the restitution of cultural property has become an important aspect of India-US cultural understanding and exchange. Since 2016, the US government facilitated the return of a large number of smuggled or stolen antiquities 10 antiquities were returned during the PM’s visit to the USA in June 2016 and 157 during his visit in June last year. During 105 antiquities,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement in September.
“The total number of cultural artefacts returned from the US to India since 2016 is 578. This is the maximum number of cultural artefacts returned to India by any country,” it said.
