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From an ivory sculpture of “Moon God Chandra” traced to 2nd-1st century BCE to an eighth-century stone sculpture of “Kamadeva, the God of Love”; from an ink-and-watercolour painting of “Mahishasura Mardini” in 1760 to another in “red ochre and wash on paper” from 1775-80 depicting “Rama and Lakshmana”.
All of them sit, catalogued, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York. What is also common to each is a trail that goes all the way back to a 73-year-old man currently in custody in India.
An investigation by The Indian Express, in association with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and UK-based Finance Uncovered, has found that Met’s catalogue includes at least 77 antiquities spanning centuries, including 59 paintings, with links to Subhash Kapoor, who is serving a 10-year prison term in Tamil Nadu for smuggling antiquities.
The investigation reviewed the museum’s antiquities catalog and found that the provenance — where each is from and its journey to the museum — of the 77 antiquities only show that they were acquired from or “donated” by Kapoor, or his associate the late Doris Weiner and her daughter Nancy Weiner, or Kapoor’s gallery in Manhattan, Art of the Past (AOP). Nancy Weiner has been convicted in the US.
This assumes significance at a time when there is a high-profile official move to ensure the return of lost heritage from abroad — in October last year, the Manhattan District Attorney announced the return of as many as 307 antiquities to India valued at nearly $4 million.
However, among those still in the US, are the Met’s oldest antiquities which are linked to Kapoor. They include:
🔴 “The Moon God Chandra in His Chariot with Wife and Attendant” (West Bengal, 2nd-1st century BCE); medium: Ivory; “Shunga dynasty”.
🔴 “Kamadeva, the God of Love” (J&K, second half of eighth century); medium: Stone; Met describes it as “a rare survivor from early medieval Kashmir”.
🔴 “The God Revanta Returning from a Hunt” (Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh, 10th century); medium: Bronze; “later Chalukyan period”.
🔴 “Child Saint Sambandar” (Tamil Nadu, late 11th century): medium: Copper alloy; “Chola period (880–1279)”.
🔴 “The God Danda and the Goddess Niksubha (Attendants of Surya, the Sun God)”, 11th century; medium: Sandstone; Met provides no background details.
The 59 paintings include:
🔴 “The Goddess Durga Killing the Buffalo Demon, Mahisha (Mahishasura Mardini)”; 1760, Mewar (Rajasthan); medium: Ink, transparent and opaque watercolor on paper; Met’s description: “Finished paintings of this subject are well known from the Mewar court and neighboring ateliers.”
🔴 “Rama and Lakshmana Visit the Hermitage of an Ascetic”; 1775-80, Pahari Hills, Guler or Kangra; medium: Red ochre and wash on paper; Met: “The rapid gestural quality of the sketch fits well with other preparatory drawings attributed to artists who followed the great master Nainsukh (active 1735-78) within the Seu family workshops in the Punjab Hills”.
🔴 “Krishna Subdues the Serpent Kaliya in the Yamuna River: Illustration from a Bhagavata Purana Series”; Pahari Hills, Guler or Kangra; medium: Ink and wash on paper; Met: “Attributed to a follower of Nainsukh (active 1735-78).”
Of the 59 paintings, 55 were “donated” to the Met with identical provenance details: “Possibly Shri Parshotam Ram Kapoor, Jalandhar and New Delhi, India; Subhash Kapoor, New York (until 2008; donated).”
The provenance of three other paintings are similar, too: “Kapoor Curios, Jalandhar, India, by 1962; Subhash Kapoor, New York (until 2008; donated).” For the remaining painting, it states: “Subhash Kapoor, New York (by 1996; donated).”
The Indian Express has established from court records that (the late) Parshotam Ram Kapoor, hailing from Jalandhar, is the father of Subhash Kapoor. The Met catalogue shows these paintings are mostly from regions that now fall in Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.
In India, artefacts that have “been in existence for not less than one hundred years” — 75 years for manuscripts — are categorised as antiquities. And guidelines issued globally for museums, following an UNESCO convention in 1970, state: “When acquiring an object, whether by purchase or donation or any other way, museums should exercise due diligence in verifying the object’s history and provenance. If a museum is acquiring an object, the museum must verify whether the object was lawfully obtained, lawfully exported and/ or imported…”
Subhash Kapoor was arrested in Germany’s Frankfurt on October 30, 2011, and extradited to India in July 2012. On November 1, 2022, he was sentenced to 10 years in jail by a court in Tamil Nadu’s Kumbakonam on charges of burglary and illegal export of idols belonging to the Varadharaja Perumal temple in Kanchipuram. He is currently serving his sentence in the Trichy central jail.
Kapoor is facing charges in the US as well for smuggling idols and artefacts from Asia. A complaint filed in July 2019 in a New York court by the Homeland Security Investigation (HSI), the principal investigative arm of the US Department of Homeland Security, stated that the “total value of stolen antiquities known to have been trafficked by Kapoor exceeds $145.71 million”.
According to the HSI’s complaint, 2,622 antiquities valued at over $143 million (nearly Rs 1,165 crore) with links to Kapoor have been seized. His modus operandi, the HSI stated, was to first select antiquities, illegally export them to the US or UK, get them restored and “laundered” using “false and forged” papers, and use AOP to sell them to “dealers, collectors and museums around the world”.
When contacted by The Indian Express, the HSI said that while it “will not confirm the existence of, or otherwise comment on, ongoing/ pending investigations”, the agency is “working with foreign governments to return their…looted cultural heritage and stolen artwork”.
Responding to questions from The Indian Express, the Met said: “The Met is committed to the responsible collecting of art and goes to great lengths to ensure that all works entering the collection meet the laws and strict policies in place at the time of acquisition. Additionally, as laws and guidelines on collecting have changed over time, so have the Museum’s policies and procedures. The Met also continually researches the history of works in the collection — often in collaboration with colleagues in countries around the world — and has a long track record of acting on new information as appropriate.”
The Met has also returned artefacts to India, with Parliament records listing at least three instances. On March 8, 2021, the Government informed Lok Sabha about the return of sculptures “Durga Mahishasurmardini” from Uttarakhand and a “Bodhisattva Head” from Andhra Pradesh, both in 2018. Earlier, on April 25, 2016, the Government had informed the Lok Sabha that an “Image of Buddha” from Bodhgaya in Bihar was “voluntarily returned without seeking any monetary compensation” by the museum in 1999.
Says S Vijay Kumar of India Pride Project, an NGO that has been working for the return of antiquities from abroad: “The Met has already returned at least five artefacts to India and many more to other source nations when their provenance research failed. Common law clearly states that a thief cannot pass a good title and thus India has to prove theft or illegal removal.”
Asked about Kapoor’s links to the Met and his current status in India, his lawyer S Nadhiya said: “We had filed an appeal at the Madurai bench of Madras High Court which was on February 15 remanded to a sessions court in Thanjavur and is now pending there.” She did not respond to the other questions.
The Union Ministry of Culture and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) did not respond to questionnaires sent by The Indian Express detailing its findings and asking about action taken by the Government in this regard. According to the Antiquities and Art Treasure Act, 1972: “…it shall not be lawful for any person, other than the Central Government or any authority or agency authorized by the Central Government in this behalf, to export any antiquity or art treasure.”
On September 23, 2020, The Indian Express investigation of data from the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network showed that Kapoor’s name was flagged in a report filed by Standard Chartered Bank, New York, “for obtaining millions of dollars in trafficking looted artefacts from international smugglers and selling them illegally”.
🔎 The Indian Express’ Shyamlal Yadav looked at the catalogues of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts (Met) in New York and found that at least 77 of its oldest antiquities and 59 paintings are somehow linked to infamous art smuggler Shubhash Kapoor.
🔎 While you are here, check out a full list of the antiquities in the possession of the Met that are linked to Kapoor, who is currently in jail in Tamil Nadu on charges of burglary and idol theft.
🔎 Okay, so artefacts have been stolen from India and taken abroad. Why can’t we just bring them back? Well the biggest challenge India is facing right now is the gap between the artefacts that have been “officially” declared missing and what is surfacing in global markets and being found in museums.
🔎 What are antiquities and what are the laws that protect them? Read our explainer.
🔎 In part 2 of his investigation, Shyamlal look at how over 90 antiquities from Jammu and Kashmir landed up at the Met. About two dozen have been linked to an American mathematician, an associate of a US-based antiques dealer on the radar of investigative agencies. Meanwhile, three are linked to Subhash Kapoor.
🔎 The road to recovering stolen antiquities has been a long and arduous one. But nothing better illustrated the challenges faced by India better than the wall it hit to get a J&K painting back from the US for over six years. Here is what happened.
🔎 Curious about these antiquities from J&K? Here is a full list of the items.
