New York justice returns 30 works of art looted from Cambodia and Indonesia

New York justice announced Friday that it had returned 30 looted works of art to Cambodia and Indonesia. Worth three million dollars, they were sold or transferred illegally by networks of American merchants and traffickers, including one convicted and imprisoned in India.

The New York prosecutor for Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, said in a press release that he had returned, during two ceremonies a few days ago, 27 pieces in Phnom Penh and three in Jakarta. Among them are a bronze of the Hindu deity Shiva (“Shiva Triad”) looted from Cambodia and a stone bas-relief from a 13th to 16th century empire stolen from Indonesia. Cambodian Ambassador Keo Chhea and Indonesian Consul General Adi praised the United States' cooperation with their countries to "protect the soul of our common heritage."

Prosecutor Bragg pointed the finger at art dealers Subhash Kapoor, an Indian-American, and American Nancy Wiener. Subhash Kapoor, accused of having led a network trafficking stolen works in Southeast Asia to sell them in his Manhattan gallery, has been the target for more than a decade of an investigation by the American justice system called “ Hidden Idol.

Arrested in 2011 in Germany, returned to India where he has been imprisoned since, he was tried and sentenced in November 2022 to 13 years in prison. Indicted in his absence in the United States in 2019 and claimed in New Delhi by the New York courts with others for “conspiracy to traffic stolen works of art”, the dealer denies the accusations against him. “The extradition of Mr. Kapoor is pending,” assures Mr. Bragg, whose services found from 2011 to 2023 some 2,500 works from his network, valued at $143 million. “We continue to investigate large-scale trafficking networks that target Southeast Asian antiquities. Although we have made progress and dismantled networks, there is clearly still a lot of work to do,” admitted the prosecutor. Nancy Wiener, convicted in 2021 for trafficking in stolen works of art, ended up donating the bronze of Shiva to the Denver Art Museum (Colorado) in 2007, which was seized by New York justice in 2023.

Since 2017, the Manhattan public prosecutor's office has been leading an international campaign to return works of art. Under the aegis of Prosecutor Bragg for more than two years, nearly 1,200 coins worth $250 million have been returned to 25 countries, including Cambodia, China, India, Pakistan, Egypt , Iraq, Greece, Turkey or Italy. New York is a trafficking hub and several works have been seized in recent years from museums, including the prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) and from collectors.