Celestial Dancer (left) and Mother Goddess Tanesar (right)

The United States has announced the return to India of more than 1,400 looted artifacts worth nearly $10 million, according to a press release from the Manhattan District Attorney.
Stolen antiquities being returned include a sandstone sculpture of a Celestial Dancer stolen from a temple in Madhya Pradesh in the early 1980s. It was looted and split in two to make it easier to smuggle and sell.
Professionally reassembled, the sculpture was later donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by one of Kapoor’s clients. Celestial Dancer remained on display at the Met until it was finally seized by the Art Theft Unit (ATU) in 2023.
“Today’s repatriation marks another victory in what has been a multi-year international investigation into antiquities trafficked by one of history’s most prolific criminals. HSI New York and our colleagues at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office worked tirelessly with our partners in India and beyond to disrupt and dismantle the smuggling networks and in turn recover these priceless parts,” said HSI Special Agent New York responsible William S Walker in the statement.
The recovered pieces were part of several ongoing investigations into criminal trafficking rings, including those linked to alleged antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor and convicted trafficker Nancy Wiener. The investigation found five people guilty.