US returns over 1,400 stolen antiquities worth $10 million to India

The United States has returned over 1,400 looted artifacts, valued at nearly $10 million, to India. The recovered items, including a sandstone sculpture of a Celestial Dancer, were trafficked by criminal networks linked to Subhash Kapoor and Nancy Wiener. The repatriation follows a multi-year investigation and the conviction of five individuals involved in the smuggling ring.

Celestial Dancer (Left) & Tanesar Mother Goddess (Right) The United States of America has announced the return of over 1,400 looted artifacts worth nearly $10 million to India, according to a press statement by Manhattan district attorney’s office. The stolen antiquities which are being returned include a sandstone sculpture of a Celestial Dancer, stolen from a temple in Madhya Pradesh, in the early 1980s. It was looted and divided in two to make it easier to smuggle and sell.

Professionally reassembled, the sculpture was later donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by one of Kapoor’s clients. The Celestial Dancer remained on display at the Met until it was finally seized by the Art Theft Unit (ATU) in 2023. “Today’s repatriation marks another victory in what has been a multi-year, international investigation into antiquities trafficked by one of history’s most prolific offenders.

HSI New York and our colleagues at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office have worked tirelessly with our partners in India and beyond to disrupt and dismantle the smuggling networks and in turn recover these invaluable pieces,” said HSI New York special agent in charge William S Walker in the statement. The recovered pieces were part of multiple ongoing investigations into criminal trafficking networks, including those tied to alleged antiquities trafficker Subhash Kapoor and convicted trafficker Nancy Wiener. The probe has found five individuals guilty.

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