Subhash Kapoor, a former Manhattan arts dealer described by authorities as one of the world’s most prolific antiquities smugglers, was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a court in Kumbakonam, India, on Tuesday.
Kapoor, 72, faced charges for the burglary and illegal export of idols belonging to the Varadharaja Perumal temple, a Hindu place of worship located outside the southern Indian city of Kanchipuram. These objects then made their way to his Manhattan gallery, Art of the Past.
Officials in the U.S. and India have accused Kapoor of leading a vast smuggling operation which extended across the Middle East and Southeast Asia. According to the New Indian Express, the idols from Varadharaja Perumal were linked to that ring.
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Before his first arrest on trafficking charges in Germany in 2011, Kapoor was lauded among New York dealers for his ability to procure museum-quality goods and museum philanthropy. Investigations into his dealings uncovered a multinational ring that, between 2011 and 2022, smuggled some 2,600 objects valued at more than $107 million from Afghanistan, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Thailand using false provenance papers. The total value of the objects has been estimated at more than $143 million.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office issued an arrest warrant for Kapoor in 2012; in 2019, he and seven of his associates were indicted for their conspiracy to traffic stolen antiquities. Following his conviction in New York, the D.A.’s office filed extradition papers for Kapoor, who had been in prison in India since 2012 awaiting the end of his trial.
In October, a spokesperson for HSI told ARTnews that “it is anticipated that [Kapoor] will be extradited to the United States upon his release from prison in India.”
A criminal complaint filed in 2019 in New York detailed how Kapoor and his associated would steal stone and bronze Hindu and Buddhist statues from remote temples across India. The idols were given fabricated provenances to create the illusion of authenticity before being sold through Art of the Past to museums, galleries, and private collectors. According to a New York Times report from 2019, one idol was listed for sale in 2008 for $2.5 million in one of Kapoor’s catalogs.
Kapoor’s case has attracted immense public attention in India because it illustrates the vulnerability of these idols—which are considered national treasures—to looting in the largely unguarded temples.