US returns 657 stolen antiquities valued at $14 million to India

New York: In a major victory for cultural preservation, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has repatriated 657 stolen artefacts to India, following extensive investigations into international smuggling syndicates. The collection, valued at approximately $14 million, was officially handed over during a ceremony attended by representatives from the Consulate General of India.

The recovery is the result of long-term probes into high-profile trafficking rings, specifically those linked to notorious alleged smuggler Subhash Kapoor and convicted dealer Nancy Wiener. District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr emphasised the gravity of these crimes during the handover, stating, “The scale of the trafficking networks that targeted cultural heritage in India is massive.” He noted that while this return is major, the mission to reclaim stolen history remains ongoing.

Highlights of the recovered treasures

The returned items span centuries of Indian history and include several high-value masterpieces:

Bronze Avalokiteshvara: A $2 million figure stolen from the Mahant Ghasidas Memorial Museum in Raipur. It was smuggled into the US by 1982 and eventually seized from a private collection in 2025.

Red Sandstone Buddha: Valued at $7.5 million, this statue was moved through Subhash Kapoor’s network and recovered from a New York storage facility.

Dancing Ganesha: A sandstone sculpture looted from a Madhya Pradesh temple in 2000. It was sold via forged documents and auctioned at Christie's in 2012 before being surrendered by a collector this year.

The crackdown on global trafficking

For more than 10 years, the Antiquities Trafficking Unit (ATU) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) have tracked Kapoor’s operations across South and Southeast Asia. Kapoor was convicted in India in 2022 and currently faces extradition to the United States.

Consul General Binaya Pradhan expressed gratitude to the US authorities for their persistence in tracing these culturally vital objects. To date, the ATU has successfully recovered over 6,200 items valued at nearly $485 million, returning them to 36 different nations. This latest restitution marks one of the largest single handovers in the unit's history.