United States: The US prosecutors have given back 30 stolen antiquities to Cambodia and Indonesia. These artefacts were illegally obtained and sold by American antiquities dealers and traffickers.
Alvin Bragg, the district attorney for Manhattan, stated in a statement that the artifacts were worth $3 million in all.
Bragg said he had returned 27 pieces to Phnom Penh and three to Jakarta in two recent repatriation ceremonies, including a bronze statue of the Hindu deity Shiva, which was looted from Cambodia, and a stone bas-relief sculpture of two royal figures from the Majapahit empire, which reigned between the 13th and 16th centuries, that was stolen from Indonesia.
Subhash Kapoor and Nancy Wiener, two American art dealers, were charged by Bragg with involvement in the illicit trafficking of antiquities.
For almost ten years, American-Indian Kapoor has been the subject of a “Hidden Idol” justice investigation. Kapoor was suspected of operating a network that smuggled stolen goods from Southeast Asia and sold them in his Manhattan gallery.
After being detained in Germany in 2011, Kapoor was extradited to India, where he was tried and found guilty in November 2022 of a 13-year prison term.
In response to a US prosecution alleging that he conspired to traffic in stolen artwork, Kapoor refuted the allegations.
Many stolen and plundered antiquities are trafficked through New York, where several pieces have been taken from private collectors and museums in recent years, including the esteemed Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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