Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much-lauded success in getting the United States to return over 200 cultural artefacts has its genesis in a single tip-off emanating from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in 2007. The leads, flagging off a major smuggling consignment, ‘The Marble Garden Tea Set’, were forwarded to the Indian Consulate in New York early in 2007, according to senior DRI officials. They said the return of the artefacts estimated at $100 million is the best example of a successful India-US intelligence sharing.
“A majority of these idols now being repatriated to India were seized under Operation Hidden Idol carried out by the Homeland Security Investigation (HSI), USA, based on a tip-off from the DRI. The illustrious Ganesha statue is part of that consignment which includes religious statues, bronze and terracotta pieces dating back 2,000 years and were looted from some of India’s historic temples including the Siva [Kapaleeswarar] temple in Chennai,” said a senior DRI official.
While receiving the artefacts, Mr. Modi had said that they were invaluable and important to Indian culture. “For some, these artefacts may be measured in monetary terms but for us this is beyond that. It’s a part of our culture and heritage,” the Prime Minister said at a handing over ceremony at the Blair House in Washington D.C.
The DRI officials said the “specific intelligence” passed on to the Indian Consulate was about smuggling of Indian antiques by a smuggler Subhash Kapoor, who owned an art gallery named ‘Art of the Past’. After receiving the alert from DRI, the Consulate sought help from HSI.
“We asked for help to trace an Indian export consignment destined for New York, containing seven crates tagged as ‘The Marble Garden Tea Sets’. The HSI examination of the container led to the seizure of the consignment now being brought back by honourable Prime Minister,” said the official.
Kapoor is currently in jail in Chennai, after his extradition in 2011 from Germany following an Interpol red alert: “He probably was the most notorious smuggler of antiques. The OHI lasted for several days in which the hundreds of pieces of idols stolen from T.N. temples were recovered from museums and art houses in New York and other U.S. cities,” said an official.