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U.S. returns 657 antiquities to India
Artifacts valued at nearly $14 million were recovered through ongoing investigations into international trafficking networks.
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Malvika Choudhary - Mon, 04, May 2026
- 18:21 EDT
- 33
An antiquitie piece / manhattanda.org
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr. on April 28 announced the return of 657 antiquities, collectively valued at nearly $14 million, to the people of India, in one of the latest efforts to repatriate cultural artifacts trafficked into the United States
The items were recovered through multiple investigations into international smuggling networks, including those linked to alleged antiquities trafficker Subhash Kapoor and convicted trafficker Nancy Wiener.
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The artifacts were formally handed over during a ceremony attended by officials from the Consulate General of India in New York.
“The scale of the trafficking networks that targeted cultural heritage in India is massive, as demonstrated by the return of more than 600 pieces today,” Bragg said. “There is unfortunately more work to be done to return stolen artifacts back to India, and I thank our team for their persistent efforts.”
India’s Consul General Binaya Pradhan said the return reflects continued cooperation between U.S. and Indian authorities.
“I express my appreciation for the sustained cooperation extended by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the law enforcement agencies whose continued vigilance has made the recovery and return of these culturally significant artifacts possible,” he said.
Among the returned items is a bronze figure of Avalokiteshvara, valued at $2 million, which was stolen from a museum in Raipur and later traced to a private collection in New York.
A red sandstone Buddha statue, valued at $7.5 million and damaged during looting, was also recovered from a storage unit linked to Kapoor.
Another piece, a sandstone sculpture of a dancing Ganesha, was looted from a temple in Madhya Pradesh and later sold through fraudulent provenance documentation before being surrendered by a private collector earlier this year.
For over a decade, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit, working with Homeland Security Investigations, has pursued networks involved in the illegal trade of cultural property across South and Southeast Asia.
Authorities said the unit has recovered more than 6,200 cultural objects valued at over $485 million and returned more than 5,900 items to 36 countries to date.
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