105 antiquities smuggled out of India are back home from US, 16 more on the way

Some among the antiquities and ‘non-antiquities’ were smuggled out of India by Subhash Kapoor, who is serving a 10-year term in a Tamil Nadu jail since November for the illegal export of artefacts.

Sources in the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of External Affairs told The Indian Express that 35 of the 105 antiquities are from Chandraketugarh, an archeological site about 35 km north-east of Kolkata, and nearly 2,000 years old. Terracotta antiquities from this site have been smuggled out for decades, they added.

A review of the list of 105 antiquities — which belong to different periods and mostly over 1,000 years old — by The Indian Express revealed eastern India as the provenance or source of 46 artefacts, south India of 29 and central India of 17. Among others, the provenance of three antiquities was listed as “central or eastern India”; two each as Uttar Pradesh and “Rajasthan or Gujarat”; and one each as “central or western India”, “Himachal Pradesh or Uttarakhand”, “Uttar Pradesh or Bihar”, north India and Western India, sources said.

The 105 antiquities were handed over to the Indian Consulate in New York on July 17. During his state visit to the US, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said on June 24, “I am happy that the American government has decided to return more than 100 antiquities that were stolen from us.”

Officials associated with the process of bringing back these antiquities told The Indian Express that the artefacts will either be displayed at the gallery of confiscated antiquities at Delhi’s Old Fort or returned to the states from where they were smuggled.

Different materials, ages

Most antiquities depict gods and goddesses such as Shiva, Lakshmi, Ganesh, Vishnu, Surya, Kubera and Krishna, besides two Tirthankars. The treasure trove also includes a “crypt” of a male’s gravestone carved in marble, and a steel dagger and sheath. The “crypt” has an Arabic/Persian inscription from Western India from 18th-19th century CE, while the dagger and sheath is from north India from 18th century CE.

Sources said most of the returned antiquities (27 of 105) are estimated to be from 2nd-3rd century CE, 16 from 6th-7th century CE, 13 from 12th-13th century CE, and 15 from 15th-17th century CE. Four of the “youngest”antiquities from this lot are from 18th-19th century CE.

Sources said the antiquities are made of different materials — 46 of terracotta; 27 of bronze; 11 of sandstone; three each of wood and marble; two each of black stone, granite and silver; and one each of brass, chlorite schist, schist, slate stone, spotted sandstone and steel.

Over the last few years, several antiquities have been retrieved from different countries including the US, Australia and Germany, among others. The move to bring back the antiquities picked pace after the arrest of one of the most notorious idol smugglers, Kapoor. He was arrested in Germany on October 30, 2011, and extradited to India in July 2012. On November 1, 2022, he was charged by a Kumbakonam court for burglary and illegal export of idols belonging to Kanchipuram’s Varadharaja Perumal temple. He is currently serving his sentence at Trichy Central Jail.

He also faces various charges in the US, including theft and smuggling of artefacts. According to 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, the “total value of stolen antiquities known to have been trafficked by Kapoor exceeds $145.71 million”.

According to 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 the antiquities, illegally export them to the US or the UK, get them restored and “laundered” using “false and forged” papers, and then use his art gallery in New York to sell them to “dealers, collectors and museums around the world”.

In an investigation done in collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and UK-based Finance Uncovered, The Indian Express had published a long list of Indian antiquities linked to Kapoor that were placed at the Met.

After the publication of the series, on March 22, the Supreme Court of the State of New York issued a search warrant against the Met, with Justice Felicia A Mennin giving 10 days to the New York Police Department or any agent of the Department of Homeland Security to seize the antiquities and bring them “before the court without unnecessary delay.”

On March 30, the Met issued a statement saying it would “transfer 15 sculptures for return to the government of India, after having learned that the works were illegally removed from India”.

Of the 15 items listed in the search warrant, 10 were flagged in The Indian Express report. Among the 15 Indian antiquities listed in the search warrant were, besides the Celestial Dancer, a 1st century BCE Yakshi Terracotta from West Bengal; a bronze sculpture of God Revanta Returning from the Hunt (10th century CE); and a 15th century Parikara (Backplate).

Another report in The Indian Express investigative series revealed that the Met’s formidable Asia collection included at least 94 artefacts of Jammu and Kashmir origin — 81 sculptures, five paintings, five pages of a manuscript, two Kashmir carpet antiquities and one page of calligraphy — none of which had details in their provenance, or background documents, of when they were moved out and by whom.