New York authorities have relinquished hundreds of artifacts valued at $14 million to India. Antiquities recovered in the process include those linked to several ongoing investigations into a criminal trafficking network. Earlier this week, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. announced that the pieces were returned at a ceremony with Consul Rajlakshmi Kadam from the Consulate General of India in New York.
Details shared by the concerned officials indicate that these items were majorly “trafficked” into the US and subsequently seized by New York authorities, thanks to large-scale investigations.
New York’s grand gesture, expected to pressure others to act similarly, comes to light as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani weighed in on the controversial case of the 105.6-carat Koh-i-noor diamond’s ownership. As the city’s first Indian-origin mayor, he recently suggested to reporters that Britain should return the gem to India.
Mamdani delivered sharp commentary on one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, currently placed in the Queen Mother’s crown and held in the Tower of London, merely hours before crossing paths with King Charles III this week at the 9/11 memorial.
New York returns stolen artifacts to India
“The scale of the trafficking networks that targeted cultural heritage in India is massive, as demonstrated by the return of more than 600 pieces today,” said District Attorney Bragg. “There is unfortunately more work to be done to return stolen artifacts back to India, and I thank our team for their persistent efforts.”
The pieces returned to India earlier this week included a bronze figure of Avalokiteshvara, which was stolen from the Mahant Ghasidas Memorial Museum, Raipur, and smuggled into the US by 1982. Thereafter, it ended up in a private collection in New York by 2014. Years down the line, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office located and seized the $2 million bronze from the collection in 2025.
Another recovered item is a red sandstone figure of a Buddha standing with his right hand raised in abhaya –mudra, a gesture of protection. Notorious former art dealer Subhash Kapoor is said to have smuggled the $7.5 million statue into New York. The Antiquities Trafficking Unit eventually seized it from one of the alleged art smuggler’s New York storage units.
One of Kapoor’s indicted co-conspirators, Ranjeet ‘Shantoo’ Kanwar, looted a sandstone figure of a dancing Ganesha from a Madhya Pradesh temple in India in 2000. Convicted trafficker Vaman Ghiya later sold and shipped it to the New York-based gallery owner Doris Wiener. Upon her mother’s death in 2012, now-convicted Nancy Wiener intentionally created false provenance for the Ganesha, consigning it to, and selling it at, Christie’s New York.
In 2012, a private collector bought it at an auction, eventually surrendering it to the Manhattan office earlier this year. That same Ganesha figure has now found its way back to India.
More about the Indian-American art smuggler linked to the artifacts loot
New York’s unmatched gesture to India was a result of the District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit and Homeland Security’s investigation spanning for more than a decade. Consequently, Kapoor and his co-conspirators were probed for the alleged illegal looting, exportation, and sale of artifacts from numerous South and Southeast Asian countries.
With the DA’s office obtaining an arrest warrant for the alleged art smuggler in 2012, Kapoor and seven of his co-defendants were indicted for conspiracy to traffic stolen antiquities in 2019. Convicted for his trafficking activities in 2022 in India, Kapoor has yet to be extradited to the US. Meanwhile, five of his co-conspirators have already been convicted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Just like the Office surrendered Indian artifacts to its rightful owners this week, it announced the return of Subash Kapoor-linked looted antiquities worth over $3 million to Nepal as well last year. Similarly, a collection of precious relics of Afghanistan’s ancient past was also returned in 2021.