US returns 105 antiquities to India days after PM Modi’s go to

By Press Trust of India: Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s State Visit to the US, a complete of 105 antiquities, spanning a interval from 2nd-Third Century CE to 18th-Nineteenth Century CE, are being repatriated to India by American authorities.

Some of the dear Indian antiquities have been handed over by the US at a particular repatriation ceremony held on the Consulate General of India in New York within the presence of India’s Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Consul General Randhir Jaiswal and officers from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

Addressing the ceremony, Sandhu stated the 100 antiquities being repatriated to India are “not just art but part of our heritage, culture and religion.”

Sandhu said when this lost heritage returns home, it is received with a lot of emotion. The antiquities will soon be transported to India.

The 105 artifacts represent a wide geographical spread in terms of their origin in India – with 47 from Eastern India, 27 from Southern India, 22 from Central India, 6 from Northern India, 3 from Western India, an official release said.

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“Spanning a interval from 2nd-Third Century CE to 18th-Nineteenth Century CE, the artifacts are fabricated from terracotta, stone, steel and wooden. Around 50 artifacts relate to non secular topics [Hinduism, Jainism and Islam] and the remaining are of cultural significance,” it said.

During Prime Minister Modi’s State Visit to the US last month, the Indian leader had thanked President Joe Biden for helping the return of these cultural properties.

Sandhu voiced gratitude to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Homeland Security officials and other agencies for their commitment and efforts in helping getting many sick artifacts back to India.

“To stop unlawful commerce of cultural property, India and the US have agreed to work in direction of a Cultural Property Agreement. This will additional strengthen the collaboration between our companies and it’ll make it tougher for the smugglers to evade legal guidelines.”

Sandhu added that the return of cultural heritage is a clear expression of goodwill of our friends and partners in the US.

Jordan Stockdale, the Chief of Staff from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said that for more than a decade the agency along with Homeland Security has investigated trafficker Subhash Kapoor and his coconspirators for illegally looting and selling artifacts from across the world.

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Stockdale said last year the US had repatriated more than 300 antiquities to India. “Yet we nonetheless have greater than 1400 recovered objects that now we have but to formally repatriate.”

“We are deeply appreciative to Prime Minister Modi’s variety phrases the opposite week on the White House and so they mirror the shut collaboration which has led to profitable restoration of 1000s of Indian antiquities. We is not going to permit egocentric traffickers like Kapoor to rob nations of their valuable cultural heritage,” Stockdale stated.

India has been making concerted efforts to carry again stolen Indian antiquities, the residing symbols of wealthy Indian heritage and tradition, from overseas.

In current years, there was shut cooperation on restitution of antiquities between India and the US, the discharge stated.

During Prime Minister Modi’s 2016 go to to the US, 16 antiques have been handed over by the US aspect. Similarly, in 2021, the US authorities handed over 157 artifacts which returned to India following the go to of the Prime Minister to the US in September 2021. With these 105 antiquities, the US aspect has handed over a complete of 278 cultural artifacts to India since 2016, it added.