29-4-2024 (NEW YORK) In a symbolic act of cultural restoration, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has successfully repatriated 30 priceless antiquities, valued at a staggering US$3 million (RM14.3 million), to their rightful homes in Cambodia and Indonesia. These ancient treasures, once plundered and trafficked through nefarious networks of American dealers and traffickers, have finally been returned to their nations of origin.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, in a statement released on Friday, revealed that his office had facilitated the repatriation of 27 artifacts to Phnom Penh and three to Jakarta in two recent ceremonies. Among the repatriated items was a breathtaking bronze sculpture of the Hindu deity Shiva (Shiva Triad), which had been looted from Cambodia, and a captivating stone bas-relief depicting two royal figures from the Majapahit empire (13th-16th century), stolen from Indonesia.
The illicit trafficking of these cultural treasures has been attributed to the nefarious activities of art dealers Subhash Kapoor, an Indian-American, and Nancy Wiener, an American. Kapoor, accused of running a vast network that trafficked in items stolen from Southeast Asia for sale in his Manhattan gallery, has been the target of a long-running U.S. justice investigation dubbed “Hidden Idol” for over a decade.
Arrested in 2011 in Germany, Kapoor was subsequently extradited to India, where he was tried and sentenced in November 2022 to 13 years in prison for his crimes. Despite a U.S. indictment for conspiracy to traffic in stolen works of art, Kapoor has consistently denied the charges leveled against him.
Wiener, on the other hand, was sentenced in 2021 for her role in trafficking stolen works of art. In a particularly brazen act, she had sought to sell the bronze Shiva sculpture but eventually donated the piece to the Denver Museum of Art in Colorado in 2007. However, the antiquity was seized by New York courts in 2023, paving the way for its rightful return to Cambodia.
District Attorney Bragg emphasized the ongoing commitment to dismantling the intricate trafficking networks that prey on Southeast Asian antiquities, stating, “We are continuing to investigate the wide-ranging trafficking networks that… target Southeast Asian antiquities. There is clearly still much more work to do.”
During Bragg’s tenure at the helm of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, the Antiquities Trafficking Unit has recovered nearly 1,200 items stolen from more than 25 countries, with a cumulative value exceeding US$250 million. New York City, a major hub for the illicit trade in cultural artifacts, has witnessed several high-profile seizures in recent years, with works confiscated from prestigious institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and from private collectors.
