New York: Prosecutors in New York announced on Friday that they had returned 30 stolen antiquities collectively worth nearly $3 million to the people of Cambodia and Indonesia. Of these 27 artefacts were returned to Cambodia and three to Indonesia following multiple investigations into trafficking networks including those of Indian-American smuggler Subhash Kapoor and Nancy Wiener, who stole these artefacts.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L Bragg said in an official statement that the antiquities were returned during two recent repatriation ceremonies, both involving the envoys of Cambodia and Indonesia to the US. Kapoor and Wiener stole the artefacts and the DA's Antiquities Trafficking Unit have investigated the former for the alleged illegal looting, exportation, and sale of artefacts from numerous countries in South and Southeast Asia.
"We are continuing to investigate the wide-ranging trafficking networks that continue to target Southeast Asian antiquities. While we have made significant progress and have dismantled several prominent networks, there is clearly still much more work to do. These repatriation ceremonies show our continued commitment to protecting cultural heritage and returning stolen antiquities back home," said Bragg.
What are the artifacts returned by the US?
The artifacts returned to Cambodia and Indonesia include a bronze 'Shiva Triad', which was smuggled out of Cambodia in the early 2000s at the direction of Nancy Wiener. "After the Triad arrived in Manhattan, Wiener and a convicted co-conspirator arranged for the piece to be restored and offered it for sale at her gallery in 2007. After failing to find a purchaser, Wiener donated the piece to the Denver Art Museum in December 2007, where it remained until the Antiquities Trafficking Unit recovered it in June 2023, said the DA's office.
Wiener was one of New York's most prominent antiquities dealers who was arrested in Manhattan on charges that she obtained millions of dollars in stolen artefacts from international smugglers and sold them illegally by creating fraudulent documents, according to the New York Times. Her gallery sold art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum and others. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy and "possession of stolen property in connection with the trafficking of looted treasures from India and Southeast Asia" and was sentenced in 2021.
The artifacts also include the Stone Relief, which was returned to Indonesia. It is considered a rare example of material culture from the Majapahit Empire (1293-1527), one of the most powerful and influential empires in Southeast Asia’s history. The relief depicts two seated royal figures, a lady and a man, surrounded by stylized foliage and holding round objects in their hands, which may be the Maja fruit for which the empire was named.
Subhash Kapoor's involvement in stealing antiquities
Prosecutors in Manhattan have charged jailed art dealer Subhash Kapoor with stealing and possessing millions of dollars worth of artefacts, with officials at the Metropolitan Museum of Art now looking into whether the looted antiquities sold by Kapoor have ended up in its collection. Kapoor was arrested by Interpol in Germany in 2011 and is in jail in India.
Kapoor was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Tamil Nadu court in 2022. For over a decade, the District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit, along with law enforcement partners at Homeland Security Investigations, have investigated Kapoor and his co-conspirators for the alleged illegal looting, exportation, and sale of artefacts from numerous countries in South and Southeast Asia. Kapoor and his co-defendants generally smuggled looted antiquities into Manhattan and sold the pieces through Kapoor's Madison Avenue-based gallery, Art of the Past, read the DA's statement.
New York indicted Kapoor and seven of his co-defendants for their conspiracy to traffic stolen antiquities. Five of his co-defendants have been convicted in the US. The DA’s Office and HSI recovered more than 2,500 items allegedly trafficked by Kapoor and his network, valued at $143 million. Hundreds of antiquities, including a 10th-century bronze Nataraja idol, the marble Arch Parikara, have been returned to India over the years.
A total of 324 antiquities have been brought back to India during the period between 2003-2023, the government informed Parliament last year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the US government for returning 105 trafficked antiquities during his historic state visit to America in June 2023.
(with inputs from agencies)
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