US returns antiquities to India in stolen art investigation

NEW YORK – U.S. authorities returned astir 250 antiquities to India connected Thursday successful a long-running probe of a stolen creation scheme.

The items, worthy an estimated $15 million, were handed implicit during a ceremonial astatine the Indian Consulate successful New York City. The centerpiece is simply a bronze Shiva Nataraja valued astatine $4 million, authorities said.

The ceremonial stems from a sprawling probe by the Manhattan territory attorney’s bureau and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The probe has focused connected tens of thousands of antiquities allegedly smuggled into the United States by trader Subhash Kapoor, who has denied the allegations.

The lawsuit "serves arsenic a potent reminder that individuals who maraud ineffable temples successful pursuit of idiosyncratic nett are committing crimes not lone against a country’s practice but besides its contiguous and future,” District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said successful a statement.

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Authorities accidental Kapoor — jailed successful India and facing charges determination pending a U.S. extradition petition — utilized his Arts of the Past assemblage successful New York to postulation looted treasures from India and assorted countries successful Southeast Asia. The probe has resulted successful the betterment of 2,500 artifacts valued astatine $143 cardinal and convictions of six Kapoor co-conspirators, Vance said.

The Shiva Nataraja bronze was sold by the parent of Nancy Wiener, a assemblage relation who pleaded blameworthy successful the lawsuit this period to charges of conspiracy and possession of stolen property, authorities said. Nancy Wiener sold looted items to large museums successful Australia and Singapore, they said.

In June, the territory attorney’s bureau returned much than 2 twelve artifacts worthy $3.8 cardinal to Cambodia arsenic portion of the investigation. Another 33 objects were sent backmost to Afghanistan successful April.

Court papers filed successful New York says Kapoor went to bonzer lengths to get the artifacts, galore of them statues of Hindu deities, and past falsified their provenance with forged documents. They accidental Kapoor traveled the satellite seeking retired antiquities that had been looted from temples, homes and archaeological sites. Some of the artifacts were recovered from Kapoor’s retention units successful New York.

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Kapoor had the items cleansed and repaired to region immoderate harm from amerciable excavation, and past illegally exported them to the United States from their countries of origin, according to U.S. prosecutors.

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