Three months after 105 antiquities, which were earlier smuggled, came back to India, the United States is sending another batch of 1,414 objects back to the country, which will include antiquities from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met).
As per the official sources, these objects have already been given to the Consulate General of India in New York. According to the procedure, a team from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which has been the custodian of all Indian antiquities, will be sent to the United States to carry out the verification of the objects after which the officials will initiate the repatriation, as reported by The Indian Express.
The objects will also be authenticated by the ASI as “antiquities” or “non-antiquities”. Although the ASI has not revealed any specific details regarding their age or region, the US authorities stated that 1,414 objects from various sources appeared to be of “Indian provenance”.
A senior official stated that the batch includes a few antiquities which will be from Met. In an earlier report, it was revealed that a treasure trove which belonged to the Met could be traced back to antique dealer Subhash Kapoor, who was imprisoned on charges of smuggling antiquities.
Met announces return of 15 sculptures in India
After the revelation, a search warrant was issued by the Supreme Court of the State of New York against the Met on March 22, which gave 10 days to the authorities to seize the antiquities.
On March 30, a statement was issued by the Met in which it claimed that it would “transfer 15 sculptures for return to the Government of India, after having learned that the works were illegally removed from India”.
The government of India in July said that the Met’s objects were likely to reach the country in the next three to six months. On July 17, the Indian Consulate in New York was given 105 antiquities by the US authorities, which will be repatriated to India in August this year. However, the objects of Met were not among them.
ASI officials stated that the new batch of 1,414 objects will most probably have non-antiquities, and they will be accordingly ranked while following the definition of “antiquity”.
In the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972, an antiquity has been defined as “any coin, sculpture, painting, epigraph or other work of art or craftsmanship; any article, object or thing detached from a building or cave; any article, object or thing illustrative of science, art, crafts, literature, religion, customs, morals or politics in bygone ages; any article, object or thing of historical interest” that “has been in existence for not less than 100 years”.
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