Following years of investigations by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, the United States returned over 1,000 looted artifacts back to India. Many of the repatriated antiquities were associated with a pair of known art traffickers, and some had ended up in American museums.
Ceremony Celebrates Return of Stolen Antiquities
Representatives from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and U.S. federal officials returned 1,440 looted artifacts to Indian authorities last week. Many of them were sold by convicted art traffickers Subhash Kapoor and Nancy Wiener, and at least two had been on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
“Today’s repatriation marks another victory in what has been a multiyear international investigation into antiquities trafficked by one of history’s most prolific offenders,” said William Walker, the federal Homeland Security Investigation’s New York special agent in charge, in a statement. A repatriation ceremony was held on November 14 at the Consulate General of India in New York. The event coincided with the International Day Against Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property, which promotes global cooperation in stopping the trade of looted artifacts.
Looted Artifacts Include Sculptures From The Met
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Sign up to our Free Weekly NewsletterAmong the looted artifacts being returned to India is a sandstone sculpture of a Celestial Dancer, which was stolen from a temple in Madhya Pradesh, India. Looters cleaved the 11th-century statue into two halves to remove it from a temple pillar and smuggle it out of India in the 1980s. The Celestial Dancer was then trafficked to New York, reassembled, and donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it went on display. Following investigations, the stolen sculpture was seized by the Antiquities Trafficking Unit in 2023.
Another sculpture, the 5th-century Tanesar Mother Goddess, was also on display at The Met before being similarly seized in 2022. It was discovered by an Indian archaeologist in the 1950s as part of a group of goddess sculptures, which were soon after stolen from the village of Tanesara-Mahadeva in Rajasthan, India. The Tanesar Mother Goddess eventually passed through Nancy Wiener’s gallery in Manhattan before being acquired by The Met.
Antiquities Trafficking Unit Recovers Over 5,000 Looted Artifacts in 10 Years
The repatriation of 1,440 looted artifacts to India was the result of “several ongoing investigations” by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which created the Antiquities Trafficking Unit just over a decade ago. This department of art experts, investigators, and lawyers has since recovered 5,800 looted artifacts collectively valued at about $460 million. “While our work continues, we remain resolute in our commitment to safeguard against the plundering of antiquities and guarantee that those who seek to gain from these heinous acts are held fully accountable,” said Agent Walker.
