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The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has stated that it's going to be returning 15 Indian artworks since learning that the sculptures were trafficked. They're making their way back to India!
If reports are to be believed, the artifacts date from the first century BCE to the eleventh century CE, and include the Yakshi Terracotta from West Bengal and the Celestial Dancer (Apsara) made of sandstone in Madhya Pradesh, which is worth more than $1 million. A stone bust of Kamadeva, are also on the lengthy list.
According to the Met, these pieces are made of stone, copper, and terracotta and date from the first century BCE to the eleventh century CE. The 15 Native artifacts included in the search warrant are believed to be worth nearly INR 9.87 crores.
According to a news statement from the museum, Subhash Kapoor, an accused Indian-American antiquities smuggler who was apprehended by Interpol in Germany in the year 2011 and therefore is currently imprisoned in India, sold all of the works.
According to reports, the aforementioned art dealer was accused by Manhattan's prosecutors of owning and stealing artifacts worth millions of dollars that were smuggled over a 30-year period. In November 2022, a Tamil Nadu court has sentenced him to ten years in prison.
The press also stated that the Met notified Homeland Security in 2015 of its works by Kapoor and began acting on this problem, which led to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office opening a criminal inquiry into Subhash Kapoor.
According to the search warrant, these things were stolen and serve as proof of crimes like possessing stolen property and conspiring to conduct those crimes, all of which are punishable under US criminal law.
According to court papers, the New York Supreme Court signed a search warrant against the Met on March 22. Judge Felicia A. Mennin allowed the New York Police Department or any DHS agent 10 days to confiscate the artefacts and present them before the court without further delay.
The Met announced on March 30 that it would transfer 15 sculptures for restoration to the government of India after learning that the pieces had been stolen away from India. The statement claims that all of the artworks were sold at some point by Subhash Kapoor, a fraud vendor who is currently imprisoned in India.
According to a different report in the series, the Met's impressive Asia collection contains at least 94 artefacts with Jammu and Kashmiri roots, including 81 sculptures, 5 paintings, 5 pages of a manuscript, 2 Kashmir carpet antiquities, & one page of calligraphy. None of these artifacts have information about when and who moved them out of the country in their provenance, however.
The museum also stated that it will adhere to responsible antiquity acquisition practises and has established rigorous requirements for both new purchases as well as its existing collection. It is currently checking the information on the pieces it bought from suspicious vendors. The Met is happy to intervene in the issue, the note read, respecting its long affiliation with the Indian government.
307 archaeological artefacts worth almost $4 million that had been stolen by numerous trafficking rings were returned to India by the US in October 2022. The artifacts were delivered during a repatriation ceremony that India's Consul General, Randhir Jaiswal attended at the Indian Consulate in New York.
