Australia Returns Stolen Artifacts to India

News Cover: The National Gallery of Australia (NGA) is a museum that houses various historical artifacts. Between 1989-2009 Subhas Kapoor sold artifacts to the NGA while living in New York, USA. However, later they found that Kapoor had a trafficking ring that looted thousands of artifacts on his orders from across the world and illegally sold it to various museums. Thousands of artifacts were sold by him across the world. He looted artifacts from India, Afghanistan, Pakistan among many other countries. 

More than 2,000 trafficked artifacts have been seized from storage locations Kapoor rented in USA. Kapoor was arrested in 2011 and is currently in jail in India awaiting trial. The NGA were shocked to learn that he had trafficked artifacts from across the world and said they would be returning all of them. In 2014, the NGA handed over a $ 5 million bronze statue of Lord Shiva to PM Narendra Modi. 

Even in 2016, they had returned more artifacts. They have now returned 14 artifacts to India such as bronze and stone sculptures, a painted scroll and photographs. These are worth around $ 3 million. Nick Mitzevich, who is the director of NGA said that, "We are dissappointed to have purchased the looted artifacts from Subhash Kapoor and soon return all items belonging to India." The Indian government is very happy to receive the artifacts back.