KUALA LUMPUR – After busting trafficking networks in Southeast Asia, the US has repatriated 27 antiquities to Cambodia and three to Indonesia valued at nearly US$3 million (about RM14.3 million).
These items were recovered during several investigations into trafficking, including into alleged trafficker Subhash Kapoor and convicted trafficker Nancy Wiener, said Manhattan district attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr in a statement.
Among the items were:
The Bronze Shiva Triad, which was smuggled out of Cambodia in the early 2000s. Beginning in the early 1990s, Wiener dealt and trafficked in Southeast Asian antiquities, which she sold through her gallery in New York County.
After the item arrived in Manhattan, Wiener and a convicted co-conspirator arranged for the piece to be restored and offered it for sale at her gallery in 2007.
After failing to find a purchaser, Wiener donated the piece to the Denver Art Museum in December 2007, where it remained until it was recovered by the Antiquities Trafficking Unit in June 2023. In 2016, the district attorney’s office arrested Wiener, and she was convicted and sentenced in 2021.
The Stone Relief, returned to Indonesia, stands out as a rare example of material culture from the Majapahit Empire (1293-1527), one of the most powerful and influential empires in Southeast Asia’s history.
The relief depicts two seated royal figures, a lady and a man, surrounded by stylised foliage and holding round objects in their hands, which may be the Maja fruit for which the empire was named. The Stone Relief was recovered from a Kapoor-owned storage unit.
“We are continuing to investigate the wide-ranging trafficking networks that continue to target Southeast Asian antiquities. While we have made significant progress and have dismantled several prominent networks, there is clearly still much more work to do.
“These repatriation ceremonies show our continued commitment to protecting cultural heritage and returning stolen antiquities back home,” said Bragg.
As alleged, Kapoor and his co-defendants generally smuggled looted antiquities into Manhattan and sold the pieces through his Madison Avenue-based gallery, Art of the Past.
From 2011 to 2023, more than 2,500 items allegedly trafficked by Kapoor and his network were recovered. The total value of the pieces recovered exceeds US$143 million.
In November 2019, Kapoor and seven of his co-defendants were charged for their conspiracy to traffic stolen antiquities. His extradition from India is pending. – April 27, 2024