NEW YORK(TIP): Disgraced Indian art dealer Subhash Kapoor, previously the owner of the Art of the Past gallery in Manhattan, and seven co-conspirators have been charged with operating a $145 million smuggling ring that dealt with thousands of looted antiquities over a period of 30 years.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office filed criminal charges against Kapoor and seven others and arrest warrants for the eight men were filed in New York City criminal court on July 15. Subhash Kapoor will be extradited to the US following the completion of his long-running trial in India. Currently he is on trial in Chennai for allegedly running a $100 million international smuggling racket.
On 30 October 2011, Kapoor was arrested at Frankfurt International Airport and on 14 July 2012 extradited to Chennai, India on charges of receiving artifacts that had been stolen from disused temples in southern India. Many of these objects were purchased by museums throughout the world. For example, in 2008 an 11th-century Chola-period bronze statue of a Dancing Shiva was sold by Kapoor tothe National Gallery of Australia for $5.6 million. The statue was allegedly stolen from a temple in Tamil Nadu.