A New York district attorney has charged two prominent art dealers with illegally dealing $3 million in antiquities.
Prosecutors in New York have announced that they have returned to Cambodia and Indonesia 30 antiquities that were looted, sold or illegally transferred by a network of American antiquities dealers and traders.
The antiques were valued at a total of $3 million, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement Friday.
Bragg said he returned 27 pieces to Phnom Penh and three to Jakarta in two recent repatriation ceremonies, including a bronze statue of the Hindu deity Shiva that was looted from Cambodia and a stone relief of two royal figures from Majapahit. an empire that ruled between the 13th and 16th centuries that was stolen from Indonesia.
Bragg accused American art dealers Subhash Kapoor and Nancy Wiener of being involved in the illegal antiquities trade.
Indian-American Kapoor – who was accused of running a ring that trafficked in items stolen in Southeast Asia and put them up for sale in his Manhattan gallery – has been the target of a US court investigation dubbed “Hidden Idol” for more than a decade.
Kapoor was arrested in Germany in 2011 and then sent to India, where he stood trial and was sentenced to 13 years in prison in November 2022.
Responding to US charges of conspiracy to traffic in stolen art, Kapoor denied the charges.
Main trading hub
New York is a major center for the trade in stolen and looted antiquities, and several works have been seized in recent years from museums, including the prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art, and private collectors.
“We are continuing to investigate large-scale smuggling networks that … target Southeast Asian antiquities,” Bragg said in a statement.
“Obviously, there's still a lot more work ahead of us.”
Convicted in 2021 of trafficking in stolen art, Wiener tried to sell the bronze law of Shiva but eventually donated it to the Denver Art Museum in Colorado in 2007.
Antika was seized by New York courts in 2023.
Cambodia's ambassador to the US, Keo Chhea, welcomed the return of the artifacts, calling it “a renewed commitment among nations to protect the soul of our shared heritage.”
“Through this collaborative effort, we are ensuring the preservation of our collective past for future generations,” he said in a statement released by the New York District Attorney.
Indonesia's representative in New York, Consul General Winanto Adi, also praised Bragg's efforts, saying it served as a “precious gift” as the US and Indonesia celebrated the 75th anniversary of their diplomatic ties.
