National Gallery hands 3 million in looted art back to India

The National Gallery of Australia is set to finally purge its collection of artworks associated with disgraced art dealer Subhash Kapoor with the return of 14 objects worth $3 million to the Indian government.

The works, which include bronze and stone sculptures, a painted scroll and photographs, were acquired by the NGA between 1989 and 2009.

Art dealer Subhash Kapoor is brought into court in India in 2012.

The museum has established that the pieces were looted, illegally exported or otherwise unethically traded.

“From the evidence we have, Kapoor has demonstrated that his business practices were not ethical,” said NGA director Nick Mitzevich.

One of the works being returned: The dancing child-saint Sambandar, which was bought in 2005

New York-based Kapoor was arrested in Frankfurt, Germany in 2011, after Indian investigators alerted Interpol that they had evidence connecting Kapoor to looted antiquities from southern India. He is still awaiting trial in India and is subject to an extradition request from the Manhattan District Attorney.

In a statement in March the DA’s office said their Antiquities Trafficking Unit had been investigating Kapoor “for many years”, accusing him of being involved in “the illegal looting, exportation, and sale of ancient art from Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal, Indonesia, and other nations”.

They have charged Kapoor with operating a $US145 million ($197 million) smuggling ring over 30 years.

The presence of the Kapoor objects in its collection has been a long-running source of embarrassment for the NGA.

In 2014 the museum agreed to return a $5 million statue, Shiva as Lord of the Dance, to the Indian government after drawn-out negotiations. The bronze, acquired from Kapoor, was handed over to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by Tony Abbott.

National Gallery of Australia director Nick Mitzevich.

Untitled [Portrait of a Woman] Udaipur, Rajasthan, India, was purchased in 2009.

The decision to finally return the 14 objects comes as the NGA broadens its policy on provenance and repatriation. Rather than working on a strictly “one-dimensional” legal basis to establish whether a piece should be returned, Mitzevich said there would also be an ethical component.

“As a 21st century institution one needs to look at the much wider ramifications of decision-making and we need to balance the legal requirements with the ethical,” he said. “We have a framework that I think strikes an appropriate balance.”

He denied that the barrier to decisions about returning works was being lowered but said rather that the museum’s specialists would look at the “holistic picture”.

Mitzevich confirmed another 12 objects in the NGA’s Asian collection were under “live investigation”, including a controversial bronze statue of the Buddhist Bodhisattva Padmapani. He said that in future there would be “zero tolerance” of gaps in provenance.

“We’re confident we have put in place very clear measures to ensure this does not happen again,” he said.

The Indian High Commissioner to Australia, Manpreet Vohra, has welcomed the latest decision.
“The government of India is grateful for this extraordinary act of goodwill and gesture of friendship from Australia,” he said. “These are outstanding pieces: their return will be extremely well-received by the government and people of India.”

Nick Galvin is Arts Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald

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