New York returns looted relics worth $3.5mn to China
relics relics
New York authorities returned plundered antiquities worth $3.5 million to China, following a criminal investigation into an American collector.The pieces, two stone-carved tombbeds, were among 89 antiquities taken from the collection of Shelby White, an 85-year-old board member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, well known for its annual fashion fundraiser the Met Gala.
As perthe Manhattan District Attorney's Office, the artefacts had been on loan to the museum since 1998, with one bed on exhibit and the other "largely hidden from public view" in the storage room, as reported by South China morning Post.
The antiquities, which weighed more than 453kg (1,000lbs), were given to the Chinese consulate in New York on Tuesday at a repatriation ceremony attended by district attorney Alvin Bragg and consul general Huang Ping.
They will be handed over to China's cultural heritage agency, which is in charge of museums and cultural artefacts.
“While their total value is more than US$3 million, the incredible detail and beauty of these pieces can never be truly captured by a price tag,” said Bragg.
The artefacts were taken and smuggled out of China in the early 1990s, according to an investigation by Manhattan's Antiquities Trafficking Unit (ATU). The carvings from a seventh-century burial platform were hacked with saws by thieves.
They were eventually sold to White, who had 89 of her artefacts confiscated during the raid, valued at roughly US$69 million and sourced from ten nations.
The stone carvings portray Zoroastrian themes such as good demons slaying devils in hell, canines that purify the body, and masked keepers of the holy flame draped in feathered cloaks with bird feet.
Since its inception, the ATU has returned over 2,450 artefacts worth over US$230 million to 24 nations. Since 2015, China has received 404 sets of cultural artefacts and artworks, as well as one paleontological specimen, in five operations.
In a landmark case of art trafficking in New York, millionaire Michael Steinhardt agreed to hand over about 180 stolen artefacts worth US$70 million in exchange for the dismissalof a grand jury inquiry into his collection in 2021. He is now forever barred from collecting additional pieces.
During the Bragg administration, more than 950 antiquities worth over US$165 million have been handed over to19 countries, including Cambodia, Egypt, Greece, India and Iraq, since January 2022.
WATCH WION LIVE HERE: