Federal investigators on Thursday seized more than $20 million worth of Asian antiquities from a Manhattan dealer who they suspect has been importing looted antiquities from India for several years.
The Manhattan District Attorney's office issued an arrest warrant for the dealer, Subhash Kapoor, on charges of possessing stolen property. Mr. Kapoor owns a gallery on the Upper East Side known as Art of the Past that advertises its role in providing antiquities to several of the world's major museums.
He is currently in India where he is being held on similar charges related to the theft of antiquities, according to a statement from the office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which made the seizures.
Among the items seized from a Manhattan storage unit was a bronze sculpture dating from the Chola Period, which ran from the late 9th century to the 13th century. Authorities valued the statue at nearly $2 .5 million and said it was among several items that had been stolen from temples in India.
There was no answer at Mr. Kapoor's Madison Avenue gallery, which the New York Post reported appears to have been closed for several weeks.
Authorities said the investigation began in 2007 based on a tip from Indian authorities. Some of the artifacts seized Thursday had been previously displayed in major museums, they said, and in some cases, they said, Mr. Kapoor had created false provenances to disguise the fact that they were stolen.
“These seizures send a clear message to looters, smugglers and dealers to think twice before trying to profit from illicit cultural property in the United States,†said James T. Hayes Jr., the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New York.
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