US returns artefacts

THE United States has returned to Pakistan more than 100 antiquities recovered from Indian-American art smuggler Subhash Kapoor, New York prosecutors announced lst Thursday (10).

Kapoor was convicted in India last week of stealing ancient religious idols and trafficking them to his art gallery in Manhattan. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Kapoor, also wanted by American authorities, was the subject of a massive US federal investigation

known as Operation Hidden Idol. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office indicted him in 2020 and have requested his extradition from India.

New York returned 192 antiquities to Islamabad valued at almost $3.4 million (£2.85m), Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said.

Some 187 of the artifacts were seized in relation to the investigation of Kapoor, Bragg added.

The returned items include a Gandhara statue depicting Maitreya, the enlightened Buddha, and Mehrgarh figures dating to around 3500-2600 BC.