192 looted and illegally exported works of art, worth $3.4 million, were returned to Pakistan on Thursday by a New York court as part of a ten-year international investigation into a jailed American and Indian art dealer. in India.
Justice has been carrying out a vast campaign for two years to restore looted antiquities around the world and that have landed in museums and galleries in the megalopolis. From 2020 to 2021, at least 700 pieces have been returned to 14 countries, including Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, Greece or Italy.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement Thursday that he had returned 192 works of art to the “Pakistani people” at a ceremony at the Pakistani Consulate General in New York.
Subhash Kapoor and the “hidden idol” investigation
Among these pieces, 187 had been trafficked by a former Manhattan art dealer with dual Indian and American nationality, Subhash Kapoor. The latter has been the target for a decade of a vast investigation by the American justice called “Hidden Idol”.
Arrested in 2011 in Germany, returned to India where he has been imprisoned ever since, he was retried and sentenced last week by this South Asian country, along with another defendant, to 13 years in prison.
Accused in 2019 and claimed in New Delhi by the New York justice along with seven other people for “conspiracy to traffic in stolen works of art”, Subhash Kapoor has always denied the charges against him.
“Thousands of Coins Plundered”
“Subhash Kapoor was one of the most active art dealers on the planet and (…) we were able to recover thousands of pieces looted by his network,” said prosecutor Bragg, promising to “continue to persecute Subhash Kapoor and his accomplices.” to hold them accountable.”
As of March, Australia has returned 29 stolen, looted and illegally exported ancient works of art to India, including 13 pieces linked to Subhash Kapoor according to Canberra.
As part of his major campaign to restore antiquities, prosecutor Bragg returned 16 works of art to Egypt in September as part of an investigation in France into international trafficking involving former Louvre chief Jean-Luc Martinez.
Source: BFM TV
