Indian American Art Dealer Subhash Kapoor Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison by Tamil Nadu Court

Indian American art dealer Subhash Kapoor was sentenced Nov. 1 to 10 years in prison by a court in Tamil Nadu, for his role in the theft and illegal export of antique artifacts worth an estimated total of $143 million. Kapoor “conspired to steal 19 antiquities from the Sri Varadaraja Perumal temple in Tamil Nadu’s Ariyular district, before exporting them to his Manhattan gallery,” The New Indian Express reported, citing the state’s Idol Wing police unit. Five of his accomplices — Sanjivi Asokan, Marichamy, Packiya Kumar, Sri Ram alias Ulagu and Parthiban — were also sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, the report added.

Artnet, an art market website, noted that Kapoor’s sentencing culminates “a major long-running investigation, which was instigated by Indian police in 2008,” following the theft from the Sri Varadaraja Perumal temple.

Kapoor was detained by German Police on Oct. 30, 2011 at the Cologne Bonn Airport, “based on a Red Corner Notice issued by the Interpol,” Artnet said. He was handed over to Idol Wing CID police, Chennai on July 13, 2012, and extradited to India, the website added.

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. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office issued an arrest warrant for Kapoor in 2012. Seven years later, in 2019, he and seven of his associates were indicted for their conspiracy to traffic stolen antiquities.

Artnet mentions a criminal complaint filed in 2019 in New York which “detailed how Kapoor and his associated would steal stone and bronze Hindu and Buddhist statues from remote temples across India.” According to the complaint, 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.

Last month, “hundreds of looted antiquities worth some $4 million were returned to India, in a ceremony held at the Consulate General of India in New York, according to an Oct. 17 statement by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr.

“More than 235 of the objects were seized as part of the New York District Attorney’s ongoing investigation into Kapoor and others tied to known traffickers Nancy Wiener and Nayef Homsi,” the DA said in the statement. “These antiquities were stolen by multiple complex and sophisticated trafficking rings – the leaders of which showed no regard for the cultural or historical significance of these objects,” he added. “Tracking down these antiquities would not be possible without the collaboration of our law enforcement partners at HSI and the outstanding work of our world-class investigators.”

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According to the statement, one of the works returned last month was the Arch Parikara, “a 12th to 13th-century antiquity smuggled from India to New York in May 2002 at Kapoor’s behest. He then sold the $85,000 piece to the Nathan Rubin-Ida Ladd Family Foundation, which donated the work to the Yale University library in 2007.”

Also returned was “the Vishnu and Lakshmi with Garuda, dating to the 11th century,” the statement said. It was” linked to Nany Wiener, who sold looted antiquities with her late mother, Doris, in New York.”

In 2022 alone, the DA’s office has returned 682 antiquities, valued at over $84 million to 13 countries. Since its founding, the Antiquities Trafficking Unit has returned nearly 2,200 antiquities, valued at over $160 million, to 22 countries.