Symbolic photo.
New York: The United States has returned more than 1,400 heritage objects to India. This has been made possible due to the tireless efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A sandstone statue stolen from Madhya Pradesh in the 1980s and a statue stolen from Rajasthan in the 1960s are among more than 1,400 antiquities returned by the United States to India. The total value of these antiques is ten million US dollars.
We tell you that in the coming months more than 600 ancient objects stolen in India will be returned. The items were returned in a ceremony attended by Manish Kulhari of the Consulate General of India and Alexandra DeArmas, group supervisor of Homeland Security Investigations at the Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Group in New York, according to a statement from the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr. were. Bragg said in a statement that at least 1,440 antiquities were returned to India under this program, whose total value is $10 million.
From idols to much more
The returned objects include a sandstone statue of a dancer stolen from a temple in Madhya Pradesh in the 1980s, and the statue of Tanesar Mata stolen from the village of Taneshwar Mahadev in Rajasthan. The smugglers had divided the idol stolen from Madhya Pradesh into two parts to facilitate its sale. In February 1992, both pieces were illegally transported from London to New York. The two parts were later professionally reassembled and donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The statue remained on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art until it was confiscated by the Antiquities Trafficking Unit (ATU) in 2023. The statement issued on Wednesday claims that the various sculptures were first documented by an Indian archaeologist in late the fifties. Some of those statues were stolen in the early 1960s.
Taneshwar Mata’s idol also returned
The Taneshwar Mata statue was in a Manhattan gallery until 1968. The Metropolitan Museum of Art took possession of the Taneshwar Mata statue in 1993, where it remained on display until it was confiscated by the ATU in 2022. “We will continue to investigate the various networks that target Indian cultural heritage,” Bragg said. During Bragg’s tenure, the district attorney’s antiquities trafficking unit recovered stolen antiquities from more than 30 countries. for an approximate value of 230 million dollars. Nearly 1,000 antiques will be returned in the coming months, including more than 600 stolen from India and recovered earlier this year, according to the statement. (Language)
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