20 Nepal artifacts worth 418 million RS, to be returned from the United States

The lawyer of the Manhattan District, Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. in the United States, has announced that it had initiated the process of returning 20 stolen non -repeated antiques, worth 410 million RS (about $ 3 million) to Nepal.

These valuable articles, which have been trafficked from Nepal over several years, have been recovered following a large investigation led by the Manhattan District Prosecutor’s Office in the notorious Activities Subhash Kapoor.

Objects include a number of invaluable artifacts, such as a portrait of the fifteenth-century military governor, Gaganshim Bharo, with his wives, a statue of the Buddha stolen from the bungamati hive and a figure of the stone goddess. These articles, part of the rich cultural heritage of Nepal, were smuggling abroad and sold to collectors and dealers in Europe and the United States.

“The people of Nepal have fought for the return of these antiques appreciated for decades and I am delighted that our long -term investigation has led to the return of these objects. These traffic networks are extended and complex, but we will continue our work to dismantle and cancel the damages they created, “said Bragg.

One of the most notable pieces returned is the portrait of Gaganshim Bharo with his wives, a traditional Nepali Paubha painting dating from around C 1450-1474. This monumental work was stolen from the Ithmbaha Monastery in Kathmandu in 1980 and was trafficked by Switzerland before being finally found in New York.

The figure of the Buddha, a statue from the 9th century that depicted Sakyamuni Buddha, was stolen from the bungamati hive in the late 1970s. Appeared in London in the 1980s before being sold to an American collector. The statue of the Buddha was recently recovered from the Art Museum of Michigan, where it was donated before the discovery of its illicit origins.

The stone goddess, representing possible the Hindu deities parvati or Lakshmi, was first surprised in a photo in 1975 at the Vishnu Devi Temple in Kathmandu. After being smuggled in Switzerland, he arrived in the collection of an antiques dealer in New York in the 1980s and remained in their possession until he was confiscated by the authorities in 2025.

The antique trafficking unit of the district lawyer (ATU), under the leadership of Bragg, has recovered over 2,275 stolen antiques, evaluated at the Antiquity Trafficking Unit of Thatistric $ 250 million, from 39 countries, said a press release issued by the Prosecutor Office.

The repatriation process was still supported by various international partners and non -Pali heritage conservation groups, including the Nepal and Keshchandra Mahavihar Conservation Society’s recovery campaign.