The United States has returned more than 1,400 cultural relics to India. Do you know what items are included?

Published On: November 16, 2024 7:35 pm

New York: The United States has returned more than 1,400 cultural relics to India. This has been made possible through the tireless efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The United States has returned more than 1,400 artifacts to India, including a sandstone statue stolen from Madhya Pradesh in the 1980s and one from Rajasthan in the 1960s. The total value of these antiquities amounts to tens of millions of dollars.

Let us tell you that over 600 ancient artifacts stolen from India will be brought back in the coming months. According to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Will Jr. Bragg said in a statement that at least 1,440 artifacts with a total value of $10 million were returned to India as part of the program.

From idol to more

The returned items include a sandstone statue of a dancer stolen from a temple in Madhya Pradesh in the 1980s, and a Tanesar Mata statue stolen from Taneshwar Mahadev village in Rajasthan. Smugglers split idols stolen from Madhya Pradesh into two parts to make them easier to sell. By February 1992, both parts were being transported illegally from London to New York. The two 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 2023, when it was confiscated by the Antiquities Transport Unit (ATU). A statement released on Wednesday said the various sculptures were first documented by an Indian archaeologist in the late 1950s. Some of these statues were stolen in the early 1960s.

Taneshwar Mata’s idol is also back

The statue of Taneshwar Mata was displayed in the Manhattan gallery until 1968. The Metropolitan Museum of Art took over the Taneshwar Mata statue in 1993 and it was on display there until it was confiscated by the ATU in 2022. “We will continue to investigate various smuggling networks targeting Indian cultural heritage,” Bragg said. During Bragg’s tenure, the District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit has recovered more than 2,100 antiquities stolen from more than 30 countries. Valued at approximately US$230 million. About 1,000 artifacts will be returned in the coming months, including more than 600 stolen artifacts from India recovered earlier this year, the statement said. (language)