The Manhattan district attorney's office has returned 657 stolen antiquities, collectively valued at nearly $14 million, to India. The artefacts were recovered through ongoing investigations into international trafficking networks linked to antiquities smuggler Subhash Kapoor and convicted trafficker Nancy Wiener.
Formal Handover Ceremony in New York
The items were formally handed over to India during a ceremony held in New York on Tuesday. District attorney Alvin L Bragg Jr said the return highlighted the "massive" scale of trafficking networks that targeted India's cultural heritage. He emphasized that efforts to recover and repatriate stolen artefacts will continue.
Significant Artefacts Returned
Among the most significant artefacts returned is a bronze figure of Avalokiteshvara valued at $2 million. It was stolen and smuggled into the US in 1982 before ending up in a private New York collection in 2014. The Manhattan district attorney's office seized the artefact in 2025. Another key object is a red sandstone Buddha statue valued at $7.5 million. Investigators found that the piece had been smuggled into New York by Subhash and later seized from one of his storage facilities by the Antiquities Trafficking Unit. The repatriated artefacts include a sandstone sculpture of a dancing Ganesha, looted in 2000 from a temple in Madhya Pradesh by Kapoor associate Ranjeet "Shantoo" Kanwar.
"It is indeed a proud moment for us as we see the results of our work, going back over a decade and half, bear fruit," said India Pride Project co-founder S Vijay Kumar. "India must thank HSI (Department of Homeland Security) for their sustained efforts on tracking these looted artefacts and ensuring their restitution to India. This is the result of 15 years of deciphering and dismantling the Indian art smuggling market which stole our idols and supplied them to the west via dealers such as Subhash Kapoor and Wiener," he said.
Ongoing Investigations and Legal Actions
For more than a decade, the Manhattan district attorney's Antiquities Trafficking Unit and Homeland Security Investigations have pursued Kapoor and his associates for allegedly looting and trafficking artefacts from South and Southeast Asia. An arrest warrant for Kapoor was issued in 2012, and in 2019 he and seven co-defendants were indicted in New York. Kapoor, convicted in India in 2022 for trafficking offenses, is currently awaiting extradition to the United States. There are five cases involving Subhash Kapoor in Tamil Nadu, covering 32 idols. Five of his associates have been convicted.
The Antiquities Trafficking Unit has so far recovered more than 6,200 cultural objects valued at over $485 million and returned over 5,900 items to 36 countries. It has also secured convictions against 18 individuals in cultural property crimes, while extradition proceedings against seven others are pending. "There are more than 1,000 more artefacts to be returned," said Vijay Kumar.
India's consul general Binaya Pradhan thanked the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, the US Department of Homeland Security, and other law enforcement agencies for their "sustained cooperation in recovering culturally significant objects."
