US returns more than 1,400 stolen antiquities worth $10 million to India | India News – Times of India

The United States of America has announced the return of more than 1,400 looted artifacts worth nearly $10 million to India, according to a press statement from the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
The stolen antiquities being returned include a sandstone sculpture of a celestial dancer, which was stolen from a temple in Madhya Pradesh in the early 1980s. It was looted and divided in half to make it easier to smuggle and sell.
The statue was professionally reassembled and 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 a multi-year international investigation into antiquities trafficked by one of history’s most prolific perpetrators. HSI New York and our colleagues at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office have worked tirelessly with our partners in India and abroad to disrupt and dismantle the trafficking networks and in turn recover these priceless pieces,” said William S Walker, special agent in charge of HSI New York. the statement.
The recovered pieces were part of multiple ongoing investigations into criminal human trafficking networks, including those linked to alleged antiquities trafficker Subhash Kapoor and convicted human trafficker Nancy Wiener. The investigation found five people guilty.