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1st century BC TERRACOTA Yakshi painting stolen from ‘East India’; a 9th-century red sandstone dancing Ganesha from central India; A 10th-century Kubera, also from Central India – These are among 105 artifacts slated to be returned to India by the United States.
During his state visit to the US last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that more than 100 stolen artifacts had been returned to India. I am glad that the US government has decided to return over 100 Indian artifacts that were stolen from us. These antiquities may have reached the international market in various ways – some legal and some illegal. I am grateful to the US government for returning these items,” he said.
It is suspected that most of these antiquities were smuggled abroad by imprisoned antiques dealer Subhash Kapoor.
The Indian Express reported on March 14, after an investigation in collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and UK-based Finance Uncovered, that New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has at least 77 artifacts in its catalog. Subhash Kapoor. The Met said last month that 16 of these relics had been returned to India. Some of the 105 antiquities slated for repatriation to India have already been verified by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which is the custodian of all repatriated artifacts. The Indian Express has learned that a team consisting of senior ASI officials will soon travel to the US to check on the remaining items.
We regularly process returns of our traces that are tracked overseas. An ASI spokesperson said approximately 105 such pieces are in the process of being returned from the United States.
Official sources said that the antiquities, in various media such as marble, terracotta and sandstone, extend over a period of 1,600 years, from the first century BC to the fifteenth century AD, and carry great historical and market value, adding that their exact value can not be ascertained.
These include a 12th- to 13th-century miniature Jain shrine made of marble from Gujarat/Maharashtra; an 11th-century statue of Vishnu and Lakshmi made of sandstone; two 14th-century sandstone apsara figures from central India; A figurehead from the eleventh century.
Once the antiquities arrive in India, the ASI, which is working under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, will decide whether the piece should be returned to its original place and handed over to the concerned state government, or whether it should be displayed in a museum dedicated to repatriated antiquities at Delhi’s Purana Qila. .
In response to an RTI query submitted by The Indian Express in April this year, ASI’s antiquities department said: “There are 103 artifacts in the pipeline for recovery from the United States.”
It said that “when any artifact of Indian origin is found in a foreign country, it is first verified by ASI in that country or on arrival in India. Experts check it on the basis of their knowledge, iconography and signs of wear.” However, she added, there is no time limit to this process.
During Modi’s recent visit to the US in 2021, 157 artifacts and artifacts were handed over to India, most of them dating back to the 11th and 14th centuries. At the time, Modi and US President Joe Biden committed to “strengthen efforts to combat theft, illegal trafficking and trafficking in cultural property”.
Modi also discussed the matter with world leaders and multilateral institutions during his foreign visits. According to government data, a total of 251 artifacts have been returned to India, of which 238 have been returned since 2014.
As stated in the joint statement between India and the US last week, the Ministry of Culture is expected to sign a cultural property agreement with the US for the “smooth return” of all such antiquities that are found to be smuggled out of the country. Ministry officials said India is also looking forward to signing such an agreement with the UK.
“Prime Minister Modi deeply appreciated the return of antiquities to India by the United States. Both sides expressed keen interest in working swiftly towards an agreement for cultural property, which would help prevent illegal trafficking of cultural property from India and enhance cooperation in the protection and legal exchange of property culture, according to the joint statement.
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