United States prosecutors have sought the custody of more than 2,600 antiquities worth $100 million stolen from India and other South Asian nations and smuggled into America by notorious Indian art dealer Subhash Kapoor.
In papers filed in State Supreme Court, Manhattan district attorney's office provided a list of the largest antiquities seizure in American history, and asked the judge to grant it the custody of the artefacts recovered from storage rooms affiliated to Kapoor, currently in jail on charges of trafficking stolen antiques from India.
The 2,622 artefacts were seized during raids that began in 2012 and continued through last year and have been valued at 107.6 million dollars, a report in The New York Timessaid.
They were looted from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Tibet, Nepal and other places in South Asia and smuggled into the United States by Kapoor.
In their complaint, prosecutors said Kapoor had cached the items in an assortment of hideaways in Manhattan and Queens. The seized items included bronze and stone statues of Hindu deities, many of them ancient masterworks worth several million dollars each.
The Times report said authorities want to gain custody of the items in order to begin returning the antiquities to their countries of origin, including India. It added that officials also hope to prosecute Kapoor, an American citizen, in the US. American officials are planning to extradite him after his case is settled. Kapoor, whose defunct gallery, Art of the Past, sold hundreds of objects to prominent American museums and collectors, has denied any wrongdoing. Among the confiscated items are statues of Buddha, Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati, figurines, tapestries, bronze sculptures and stone and clay artefacts ranging from 12,000 to 15 million dollars.
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