US returns more than 1400 antiquities to India, know which ones are included?

New York: America has returned more than 1400 heritage items to India. This has become possible after the tireless efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A sandstone statue stolen from Madhya Pradesh in the 1980s and one stolen from Rajasthan in the 1960s are among more than 1,400 antiquities returned to India by the US. The total value of these antiques is ten million US dollars.

Let us tell you that more than 600 antiquities stolen from India will be sent back in the next few months. The items were returned in the presence of Manish Kulhari of the Consulate General of India and Alexandra DeArmus, group supervisor of homeland security investigations for the New York Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities Group, according to a statement from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg was a junior. Bragg said in a statement that at least 1,440 antiquities were returned to India in the program, with a total value of US $10 million.

From idols to many more

Among the items returned are a sandstone statue of a dancer stolen from a temple in Madhya Pradesh in the 1980s and a statue of Mother Tanesar Mata stolen from Taneswar Mahadev village in Rajasthan. Smugglers had split the stolen idol from Madhya Pradesh into two parts to make it easier to sell. By February 1992, both parts had been smuggled from London to New York. Both 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 Antiques Traffic Unit (ATU) in 2023. A statement issued on Wednesday said the various sculptures were first documented by an Indian archaeologist in the late 1950s. Some of these idols were stolen in the early 1960s.

The idol of Taneshwar Mata was also returned

The statue of Taneshwar Mata was in a gallery in Manhattan until 1968. The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired 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 various smuggling networks targeting Indian cultural heritage,” said during Bragg’s tenure, the District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit has recovered stolen antiquities from more than 2,100 countries. Cost around US$230 million. About 1,000 antiquities are to be returned in the coming months, including more than 600 stolen from India and recovered earlier this year. (language)