ISLAMABAD – The United States returned 133 stolen antiquities valued at over $13 million to Pakistan this week.
This marks the fifth repatriation of artifacts to the South Asian country, which saw many of its relics dating back to the Gandhara period stolen.
Artifacts are man-made objects, such as pieces of art or tools, that hold significant cultural, historical, or archaeological value.
The illicit antiquities trade is a multi-billion-dollar global industry, according to a 2018 report by Standard Chartered Bank. This trade often funds criminal and militant groups on the supply side, as noted by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
“The United States returned to Pakistan 133 pieces of stolen antiquities worth over $13 million at a ceremony held at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in New York on Tuesday,” reported the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).
Some of the artifacts were displayed during the ceremony, where Pakistani Consul General in New York, Aamer Ahmed Atozai, stated that the artifacts would be showcased in museums across Pakistan.
The Consul General also signed an agreement with Matthew Bogdanos, the Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan who leads the Antiquities Trafficking Unit, for the repatriation of the artifacts to Pakistan.
Bogdanos expressed his pleasure in returning the “glorious pieces of Pakistani heritage” to a country with a civilization dating back 5,000 years.
Pakistan and the US regularly work together to return stolen artifacts. In 2021, following an investigation into Indian-American art dealer Subhash Kapoor, the US returned 192 stolen antiquities valued at around $3.4 million. In August 2022, the US returned 104 artifacts valued at $3.3 million to Pakistan, which were among thousands of relics looted from Asian countries and seized from Kapoor.
