As Australia returns Indian antiques worth US$2.2 million, many others remain smuggled worldwide

Australia’s national art museum sourced the items from a gallery of Subhash Kapoor, who allegedly smuggled them with help from figures in Hong Kong, London, Singapore and other cities

Experts say India’s ineffective laws, porous borders and a lack of government accountability have for years enabled treasures to be taken and sold worldwide

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The artwork ‘Letter of invitation to Jain monks’ will be among those returned to India by the National Gallery of Australia. Photo: NGA via EPA-EFE

Published: 5:30pm, 9 Aug 2021Updated: 8:57pm, 9 Aug 2021

India is set to welcome back 14 antiques worth US$2.2 million from Australia’s national art museum, in the fourth such repatriation of artworks allegedly stolen by a man described as “one of the most prolific commodities smugglers in the world”.

The National Gallery of Australia acquired dozens of pieces between 1989 to 2009 from the New York gallery of Subhash Kapoor, who is currently on trial in India on several cases of fraud and antique pilferage.

Kapoor is accused of trafficking some 2,600 objects worth US$145 million into the United States with the help of smugglers and art restorers in Brooklyn, Hong Kong, India, London and Singapore.

Previous items returned from Australia included a 900-year-old sculpture of Hindu god Shiva, allegedly also smuggled by Kapoor, which former Prime Minister Tony Abbott handed over to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in September 2014.

While the repatriation appears to be a cause for cheer, it will be far from the last, with experts highlighting how India’s ineffective laws, porous borders and a lack of government accountability have for decades enabled thousands of heritage objects to be removed and sold all over the world.

Apart from Australia, Indian antiques – defined by law as any work of art that is at least 75 years old – have been taken away to dozens of other countries.

A portrait of a woman at the National Gallery of Australia that will be returned to India. Photo: NGA via EPA-EFE

When Modi visited Canada in 2015, former leader Stephen Harper handed over the “Parrot Lady”, a 900-year-old sculpture with an estimated worth of US$10 million, believed to have come from the historic city of Khajuraho in present-day Madhya Pradesh state.

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