US repatriates 1,400 looted artifacts worth $10 million to India
The Manhattan District Attorney's office announced on Wednesday that the United States has returned over 1,400 stolen artifacts worth nearly $10 million present in the country to India. Among the returned artifacts is an 11th-century sandstone sculpture of a celestial dancer, which was illegally transported from central India to London and then illegally sold and donated to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Repatriation linked to investigations into notorious art traffickers
The repatriation stems from multiple investigations into looting networks that were operated by convicted art traffickers Nancy Wiener and Subhash Kapoor. Kapoor, an American antiquities dealer, was sentenced to a decade in prison after being convicted for running a multimillion-dollar looting network through his New York gallery. He was arrested in Germany in 2011 and faces charges in India's Tamil Nadu state, with the US also seeking his extradition.
Significant artifacts among returned items
Another prominent artifact returned to India is the Tanesar Mother Goddess statue, stolen from Rajasthan in the 1960s, and later displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The repatriated items were formally handed over at a ceremony at the Indian consulate in New York on Wednesday. William Walker, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigation's New York division, called this repatriation "another victory in...a multiyear international investigation into antiquities trafficked by one of history's most prolific offenders."
US-India agreement to protect cultural property
In July, India and the US signed the first ever 'Cultural Property Agreement' to protect cultural property. Union Minister of Culture and Tourism, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, emphasized that preservation and protection of Indian artifacts and cultural heritage have emerged as an integral component of India's foreign policy over the last decade. India has repatriated 358 antiques since 1976, with 345 retrieved since 2014, according to the minister.
