US Returns 1,400 Looted Artifacts Worth $10M to India

The United States has returned over 1,400 looted artifacts worth $10 million to India, part of an initiative to repatriate stolen art from South and Southeast Asia. The returned items include artifacts once displayed at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, CNN reported. Among them is a sandstone sculpture of a celestial dancer, smuggled from central India to London before being illegally sold to a Met patron and donated to the museum.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office stated that the items were recovered through investigations into criminal trafficking networks run by convicted art dealers Subhash Kapoor and Nancy Wiener. Kapoor, a former New York antiquities dealer, is serving a 10-year prison sentence in India for orchestrating a multimillion-dollar looting operation. Arrested in Germany and extradited to India, Kapoor was convicted of antiquities trafficking in 2022, with his US extradition still pending.

The artifacts were formally handed over to India during a ceremony at New York’s Indian consulate on Wednesday. William S. Walker, Homeland Security Investigations New York Special Agent in Charge, called the repatriation “a victory in a multi-year, international investigation into one of history’s most prolific offenders.”

In July, India and the US signed their first-ever “Cultural Property Agreement” to curb the illicit trafficking of antiquities. The agreement was signed by India’s Ministry of Culture Secretary Govind Mohan and U.S. Ambassador Eric Garcetti, further strengthening bilateral efforts to protect cultural heritage.