Indian American Art Dealer Palmed Off Stolen Indian Artifacts

Wednesday, 01 January 2014, 01:50 IST
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After federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations searched Kapoor's Art of the Past gallery and storage facilities in January 2012, Mohamed insisted that the bronzes be removed from her house. They are now missing.

Mohamed allegedly created false provenance for several Kapoor objects, according to chasingaphrodite.com.

Among the artefacts identified in the complaint for the first time are a 10th-11th century sculpture of Lakshmi Narayana from northern India, now at the National Gallery of Australia.

The NGA bought it from Kapoor in 2006 for $375,000, records show. As Kapoor noted in promotional materials, "the treatment of the eyes is similar to that of another Lakshmi-Narayana from the temple at Khajuraho," a world heritage site in Madhya Pradesh that contains some of the greatest masterpieces of Indian art.

Also listed is a gilded 18th century altar from Goa showing the Virgin Mary at Singapore's Asian Civilisation's Museum.

Kapoor sold it to the museum in 2009 for $135,000, describing it as "one of the most important and unique examples of Goanese art to appear on the market in over a generation".

For the first time, Friday's criminal complaint lists several American museums that purchased objects from Kapoor and his associates, who the complaint says attempted to launder them with fabricated ownership histories.

They include, according to chasingaphrodite.com, a 12th century Vishnu Trivrikrama at the University of Florida's Harn Museum in Gainsville, Florida and a 19th century painting at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

Mohamed also allegedly provided false provenance for a torso of a Vedata that was reported as stolen from Madhya Pradesh state's Karitalai village in 2006 on the Interpol database, the complaint said.

Read Also: Khobragade's Paperwork Under Review: U.S. and White House Petition Launched To Drop Charges Against Devyani


Source: IANS