US return stolen artefacts to Pakistan

In a rare and interesting development, the US return stolen artefacts to Pakistan and returned 192 stolen antiquities that are valued at nearly $3.4 million to Pakistan after an investigation into an Indian-American art dealer who was caught by American law enforcement personnel. It was announced that these artefacts were recovered from the art dealer, Subhash Kapoor and he was identified as one of the world’s most prolific antiquities traffickers. The art pieces and artefacts included a Gandharan statue depicting a Maitreya — an enlightened form of the Buddha — which was looted from Pakistan and smuggled into New York during the 1990s. Subhash Kapoor had owned an art gallery in New York called ‘Art of the Past’ and a side business that specialised in selling antiquities from South Asia when he was accused of smuggling and selling stolen artefacts. It was stated that the antiquities were looted from a Neolithic archaeological site in Pakistan before being trafficked to New York. They were placed in a storage unit rented by agents of the art gallery until their seizure by US authorities this year. These artefacts were stolen from archaeological site of Mehrgarh in Pakistan that was discovered by archaeologists in 1974 and subsequently faced looting. TW

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