Alvin Bragg, New York City Attorney for the Borough of Manhattan on October 31, 2022 in New York City. JOHN MINCILLO/AP
For a decade, the American judiciary has been conducting a comprehensive investigation called the “Hidden Idol.” The latter, targeting a former Manhattan art dealer with dual Indian and American citizenship, Subhash Kapoor, resulted in the return of some 192 artworks valued at $3.4 million ($3.34 million) on Thursday, November 10 euros) to Pakistan. .
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New York City Attorney for the District of Manhattan Alvin Bragg said in a statement that he returned the exhibits to the “Pakistani people” during a ceremony at the Pakistan Consulate General in New York. Of these works, 187 had been traded by Mr. Kapoor.
“Subhash Kapoor was one of the most active art dealers on the planet and (…) we were able to recover thousands of pieces that were looted from his network,” said prosecutor Bragg, who promised “Mr. to continue prosecuting Kapoor and his accomplices to hold them accountable”.
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At least 700 pieces returned to fourteen countries in two years
Arrested in Germany in 2011, returned to India where he has been imprisoned ever since, Subhash Kapoor was tried again last week by that South Asian country and sentenced along with another defendant to thirteen years in prison. Indicted in 2019 and charged in New Delhi by the New York Judiciary with seven others for “conspiracy to traffic in stolen works of art,” Mr. Kapoor has consistently denied the charges against him.
The New York State Judiciary has been conducting a sweeping campaign over the past two years to restore antiquities looted around the world that have ended up in museums and galleries in the megalopolis: at least 700 pieces have been returned from 2020-2021 countries including Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, Greece or Italy.
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As part of his major antiquities restitution campaign, prosecutor Bragg returned 16 works of art to Egypt in September – including five confiscated from the prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art in the spring – as part of an ongoing investigation by France into an international trade involving the former Boss of the Louvre Jean-Luc Martinez.
For its part, in March Australia returned to India twenty-nine ancient works of art that had been stolen, looted and illegally exported, including thirteen pieces – including a $5 million bronze statue of the Hindu god Shiva – associated with Mr Kapoor, according to Canberra .
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