THE New York prosecutor, Friday (26/4) local time, said he had returned to Cambodia and Indonesia 30 artifacts that were looted, sold or illegally transferred by a network of traders from the United States (US).
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the artifacts were estimated to be worth a total of $3 million.
Bragg, in an official statement, said 27 artifacts went to Phnom Penh and three to Jakarta in two separate ceremonies, including a copper Shiva statue looted from Cambodia and a stone relief featuring two nobles from the Majapahit Kingdom, which was stolen from Indonesia.
Bragg accused art dealer Subhash Kapoor, a US-Indian citizen, and US citizen Nancy Wiener of illegal trafficking of historical objects.
Kapoor, who is said to have controlled a network of trafficking stolen objects from Southeast Asia to sell at his gallery in Manhattan, has been the target of US prosecutors’ investigations for more than a decade.
Arrested in 2011 in Germany, Kappor was returned to India, where he was tried and sentenced to 13 years in prison in November 2022.
“We continue to investigate smuggling networks targeting antiquities from Southeast Asia,” said Bragg. “We still have a lot of work to do.” (AFP/Z-1)
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