US museum to return 'stolen' artwork bought from Indian dealer
Boston, Apr 4, 2015 (PTI)
One of the US' prestigious art museums will hand over to American authorities a rare mid-19th century Tanjore portrait bought from notorious art dealer Subhash Kapoor accused of trafficking stolen antiquities from India.
The Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts yesterday announced that it will hand over the Indian artwork to the Department of Homeland Security as part of the government's ongoing investigation into an alleged international art fraud enterprise.
The artwork titled
'Maharaja Serfoji II of Tanjavur and his son Shivaji II' was purchased by the Museum from Kapoor's New York gallery in 2006 for USD 35,000, the Boston Globe reported.
The Peabody Essex is the second US museum to voluntarily agree to relinquish a work of art linked to the dealer.
Earlier this week, the Honolulu Museum of Art returned seven pieces purchased from Kapoor following a probe during which it emerged that
the objects had been stolen from temples and ancient Buddhist sites in India and brought to the US illegally.
Kapoor was arrested in 2011 in Germany on charges of trafficking in looted Indian antiquities. He was extradited to India and is awaiting trial. He has pleaded not guilty.
Peabody Essex Museum director Dan L Monroe said the allegations of Kapoor's art trafficking have created "shock waves" around the world.
"It involves a substantial number of art museums, and they're not just in the US," he said, adding that he knew of 18 museums with pieces linked to Kapoor in their collections.
Monroe said the the Museum has been working with Homeland Security Investigations, a division of the federal department, since Kapoor's arrest at the airport in Frankfurt in 2011.
"We took a proactive role to notify the Department of Homeland Security of all works we had through gift or purchase from Kapoor," said Monroe.
Monroe said Kapoor first established his relationship with the Peabody Essex by donating works to the collection.
"He made several gifts to the museum and then eventually offered works for purchase," Monroe said.
He said the
Peabody-Essex collection still has "six or seven" of Kapoors works, which federal investigators have told the museum do not appear to have been improperly acquired.
Luis Martinez, a public affairs officer with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the investigation known as Operation Hidden Idol has already recovered approximately 1,000 items, worth an estimated USD 150 million, linked to Kapoor, the daily reported.
While some of the works are more recent, many are much older, including a
second-century BC pillar sculpture valued at nearly USD 18 million and a 2,000-year-old terra cotta rattle.
"It is the largest seizure that HSI has made from an individual," said Martinez, who added that investigators have identified approximately 2,000 pieces linked to Kapoor that they suspect were looted.
He noted that many of the works are in museums and private collections.
"A lot of these museums are victims themselves," he said.
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Museum Website.
PEM | PEM RETURNS ARTWORK IN COOPERATION WITH DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY CASE « Press
SALEM, MA -- The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) announces it will expedite the transfer of an artwork from its collection to the Department of Homeland Security's - Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) to cooperate with an ongoing international art fraud investigation. PEM is one of several major art institutions around the world that purchased items from art dealer Subhash Kapoor, who was arrested in 2011 on charges of trafficking in stolen antiques from India.
Through HSI's investigation, PEM learned
that a mid-19th century Tanjore portrait in its collection, which was acquired from Subhash Kapoor's New York gallery in 2006, has falsified provenance. The artwork will be turned over to HSI.
"PEM's legacy of cultural and artistic exchange with India extends over 200 years," says Dan L. Monroe, PEM's Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Director and CEO. "The allegations of Subhash Kapoor's art trafficking bring to light a nefarious ring of fraud, the discovery of which has sent shock waves through the art community. PEM has undertaken a rigorous internal assessment of its collection and is working in full cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security. PEM remains deeply committed to collecting, stewarding and presenting exceptional works of art and culture from around the world."
"I applaud the Peabody Essex Museum's decision to assist HSI with our investigation by returning this precious artwork," said Raymond R. Parmer Jr., special agent in charge of HSI New York. "I hope their example sets the standard for other institutions that may have inadvertently purchased or received stolen artifacts."
Artwork details:
Indian artist, mid-19th century
Maharaja Serfoji II of Tanjavur and his son Shivaji II,
Tanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India
Wood, lime plaster, water-base paint, gold leaf, glass
57 x 42 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches (144.78 x 107.95 x 13.97 cm)
Peabody Essex Museum, Museum purchase, 2006.
E303395
PEM's Indian Art Collection
PEM is home to the most important collection of modern-era Indian art, from colonial times to the present, outside India. In 2001, the acquisition of the Chester and Davida Herwitz Collection of post-Independence art from India established PEM as the first museum outside of India to focus on the achievements of its modern artists. The Herwitz Collection of post-1947 Indian paintings -- some 1,600 works by approximately 70 artists -- remains unparalleled in any American or European museum. Painting dominates the overall collection, in large measure because of the Herwitz Collection, but also because of its deep holdings in the vernacular Kalighat painting tradition: PEM's Kalighat paintings constitute one of the top three collections in the world.
PEM is preeminent internationally for representing the art of the modern era, from the period of British colonial rule to the present, in what is modern-day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Additionally, the extensive Bhutanese textile collection is the most important in an American museum, and the museum has diverse works from various Southeast Asian cultures, principally from the Philippines, Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, as well as from Tibet and Nepal.