indian slobs!

washington, dc: the ongoing case of subhash kapoor – the notorious art thief who is now standing trial in tamil nadu for allegedly selling stolen indian artifacts to museums around the world – is getting a bit stranger, as it appears that despite the efforts of the us government to return some $100 million worth of stolen art, india doesn’t seem particularly interested in getting these items back.

the us immigration and customs enforcement (ice) agency has seized about $100 million worth of stolen artifacts, all of which apparently came from kapoor, according to a report by archaeologist and activist dr. kirit mankodi. these were taken from kapoor’s “art of the past” business in new york, and appear to mostly have originated from religious sites around the states of tamil nadu and madhya pradesh.

related story: toledo museum of art wants to return stolen idol of ganesha, but indian consulate in new york, embassy ignore it

one such piece is a stone sculpture of the buddha, which originated in the chola era, while another sculpture of bharhut yakshi is estimated at $15 million in value. other works include a sandstone sculpture of the mahakoka, a bird-like goddess, which was reported stolen in july of 2004.

these works, along with many others, have been collected and are waiting to be sent off to india. but due to a lack of activity from india’s side, they have been languishing in a warehouse in the us. indian authorities are demanding to see proof of where these works originated, and want to make sure they can trace the full histories of these objects before taking them back.

the news is unusual, as just this january, the successful handover of a sandstone sculpture took place at the indian consulate general in new york city. india has been swift to arrest and prosecute kapoor for his alleged crimes, but their delaying in reclaiming these works of art is somewhat unexpected.

last month, the toledo museum of art had a similar problem, when it reached out to the indian consulate general and embassy regarding what to do with its ganesha idol. kapoor sold that idol to the museum, along with several other works over a ten-year timespan. if they are stolen, the museum wants to return them, but it has received no communication from indian authorities.

“we have had no contact from the indian side,” said kelly fritz garrow, the director of communications at the toledo museum of art. “we wrote to the indian consulate in new york on july 13 of last year, when we first found out that there may be an issue, but we received no response to that. we wrote another letter recently [to the embassy], when we put out the information about the items we bought from kapoor, but once the us government got involved with us, we’ve worked directly with them. we hoped to work directly with the indian government, but that didn’t happen, so the justice department is our primary contact.”

kapoor’s stolen art found its way to museums outside of the us, as well. the national gallery of australia, which bought a 900 year-old bronze statue of the hindu god shiva from kapoor, has sued him for $5 million. they’ll have to wait until his current trial is resolved before getting their shot at him.

as for the art collected by ice – it’s still sitting in a department of homeland security warehouse, a sad state of affairs in which the public can’t appreciate it, and its home government can’t (or won’t) claim it.

deepak chitnis for the american bazaar