US returns nearly 200 rare artifacts to Pakistan

KARACHI, Pakistan

The US has returned nearly 200 rare artifacts dating back 8,000 years to Pakistan, in one of the largest repatriation of antiquities in recent decades, state-run media said Saturday.

The antiquities, which belong to the 8,000-year-old Mehrgarh civilization, were returned by the Homeland Security Department to the Pakistan Consulate in New York in a ceremony, following an investigation into an Indian-American art dealer, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported, citing the Manhattan District Attorney Office.

A total of 192 antiquities, of which 187 were stolen and smuggled into New York in the 1990s by Subhash Kapoor, were handed over to Pakistan's Consul General Ayesha Ali.

The district attorney’s office identified Kapoor, who owned the Art of the Past art gallery in New York and a business that specialized in selling antiquities from Southeast Asia, as one of the "world’s most prolific" antiquities traffickers.

The artifacts, which include a Gandharan statue depicting a Maitreya -- an enlightened form of the Buddha -- were placed in rented storage by the art gallery until it was seized by US authorities this year, it said.

Kapoor, who was arrested in October 2011 at Frankfurt International Airport in Germany and extradited to India on charges of having received stolen artifacts, was sentenced to 13 years in jail by an Indian court last week.

The US, which indicted Kapoor, along with seven co-defendants in a "conspiracy to traffic the stolen antiquities" in 2019, is seeking to have him extradited.

“We will continue to pursue full accountability against Mr. Kapoor and his co-conspirators, who showed a blatant disregard for the cultural and historic significance of these antiquities,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was quoted.

Six of the defendants have been convicted by Indian and American courts from 2013 to 2020, according to the district attorney's office.

Pakistan hosts scores of archaeological sites -- dating thousands of years -- many revered by the followers of Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism and pre-historic religions such as Aryan, Barhaman and ancient Iranian and Greek religions.

But the country has failed not only to preserve and protect its corroding architectural treasure from the ravages of time but to curb the widespread theft and smuggling of ancient artifacts.

Located in southwestern Balochistan province, the Mehrgarh archeological site was discovered in 1974 and has long been a prime target of artifact smugglers due to a lack of safety measures.