New York, 1 August 2012
On 26 July 2012, a collaboration between Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seized a group of Indian sculptures stolen from the reserves of the Past Gallery in New York.
Among the sculptures estimated at 16 million euros were three Chola Dynasty bronze sculptures taken from the temples of Tamil Nadu, a stoneware piece from the Gupta Dynasty, a Kushan shales piece and a Chola Buddha sculpture.
The gallery’s owner, Subhash Kapoor, had forged the authenticity certificates of the stolen goods. After being extradited at the request of the Indian government, he was wanted by Interpol and later arrested in 2011 at the Frankfurt Airport.
Since 2007, HSI has helped return more than 2,500 works of art illegally imported to the United States.