WASHINGTON: More than 5,000 years’ old figurines of the mother goddess from Mehrgarh were rescued from the basement of a New York art dealer. So was a relic showing Gautama Buddha meditating under the tree of awakening. 

The two are among 341 artefacts that US officials have recovered and handed over to Pakistani officials in New York since November 2020.

On Nov 1, a trial court in India, sentenced 71-year-old art dealer Subhash Kapoor and five of his accomplices to 10 years in prison for theft and illegal export of 19 antique religious idols from a temple in the state of Tamil Nadu.

Kapoor, who led a smuggling ring, was charged in 2019 with trafficking over 2,600 individual objects worth over $143 million from India, Pakistan, and other places.

The Pakistani artefacts were recovered in New York by a joint team of the Homeland Security (DHS) and the Manhattan District Attorney’s (DA) office. Pakistan received the first batch of 45 artefacts in 2020, another of 104 in 2021 and then of 192 artefacts earlier this week. Besides those of the Mehrgarh and Gand­hara civilisations, the recovered item also includes a beautiful Multani vase, about 250 years old.

“Subhash Kapoor and others engaged in the theft and smuggling of valuable cultural heritage are being pursued and prosecuted,” said Pakistan’s Consul Gen­eral Ayesha Ali who rece­ived the objects from US officials.

The total worth of valuables received this week was about $3.4m, she said. 

Among the 192 items returned on Thursday are a Gandhara statue depicting Maitreya, or an enlightened Buddha, and Mehrgarh Dolls between roughly 4,500 and 5,500 years old. 

The antiquities were looted from a Neolithic archaeological site in Pakistan before being trafficked to New York. They were placed in a storage unit rented by the agents of a group called Art of the Past until their seizure by US authorities this year. 

The archaeological site of Mehrgarh in Pakistan was discovered in 1974 and subsequently faced looting. 

The Manhattan DA’s office says it has recovered more than 2,500 artefacts trafficked by Kapoor and his network from numerous countries between 2011 and 2022.

“We began this journey with the DA’s office and DHS for its vital role in ensuring that the criminal network is punished,” Ms Ali said.

US officials, she said, were now planning to bring the smugglers from India and prosecute them in the United States.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2022