Premium

486 ASI antiquities missing since 1947: why numbers don’t capture the story

The National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities has so far registered 3.52 lakh antiquities from the 16.70 lakh it has documented for an “effective check” on illegal activities.

The Moon God Chandra - 1st century BCE, ivory, West Bengal, Shunga period.

Listen to this article

00:00

1x 1.5x 1.8x

PERHAPS, the biggest challenge the Government faces in its move to bring its heritage home — is at home. This is best illustrated by the formidable gap between which artefact has been “officially” declared missing and what is surfacing in global markets or being found in museum shelves and catalogues.

In fact, estimates of missing pieces range from less than 500 to as high as 50,000.

Express Investigation | India treasure trove sitting in US museum is linked to smuggler in Tamil Nadu jail

Since Independence, only 486 antiquities have been reported as missing from the 3,696 monuments protected and maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), including 139 from Madhya Pradesh, 95 from Rajasthan and 86 from Uttar Pradesh, according to records accessed by The Indian Express under the Right To Information (RTI) Act.

(L-R) The God Revanta 10th century, bronze, late Chalukyan, Karnataka /Andhra; Kamadeva, the God of Love 8th century, stone, early medieval Kashmir; Child Saint Sambandar – late 11th century, copper alloy, Chola period

While these are still missing, the RTI records also show that 305 antiquities have been brought back to India from abroad since 1976, including 292 since 2014. However, as the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Transport, Tourism and Culture points out, these numbers may just be “the tip of the iceberg”.

Nearly four years ago, the US Department of Homeland Security’s investigative wing informed a court in New York that it had seized 2,622 antiquities valued at over $143 million (nearly Rs 1,165 crore), mainly from Asia, with links to just one man alone — Subhash Kapoor, the Indian antiquities smuggler who is serving a 10-year prison term in Tamil Nadu for idol theft.

Don't miss | Full list: Antiquities in the possession of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art

In its report on June 15 last year, the Parliament committee flagged that “number of antiquities retrieved” by the ASI from abroad “are not even the tip of the iceberg in comparison to the huge number of antiques smuggled out from country”.

Apart from ASI-protected monuments, there are several others preserved by state governments and their agencies.

The ASI’s list of missing antiquities covers 17 states and two Union Territories. Apart from MP, Rajasthan and UP, the list includes: Uttarakhand (33), Tamil Nadu (30), Bihar (22), Andhra Pradesh (18), Karnataka (15), Maharashtra (12), Chhattisgarh (8), Odisha (5), Telangana (5) and West Bengal (3), among others. According to ASI, 292 antiquities have been brought back to India from abroad since 2014 and 13 between 1976 and 2013.

Explained | Antiquities abroad: What Indian, international laws say

According to the ASI list, 322 of the 486 antiquities were reported missing since 1976, when India implemented the Antiquities and Art Treasure Act of 1972. Experts say the monuments and sites maintained by the ASI is only a “small percentage” of the total number of archaeological sites and monuments across the country. The menace of missing antiquities is illustrated by an UNESCO estimate that “more than 50,000 art objects have been smuggled out of India till 1989”.

The National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities has so far registered 3.52 lakh antiquities from the 16.70 lakh it has documented for an “effective check” on illegal activities. This is just a small portion of the nearly 58 lakh antiquities in the country in an estimate submitted by the Union Ministry of Culture in Parliament last year: ASI (15 lakh), various museums of central and state governments (25 lakh), universities (10 lakh) and private collections (8 lakh).

The Indian Express x ICIJ investigation on lost antiquities in a nutshell:

🔎 The Indian Express’ Shyamlal Yadav looked at the catalogues of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts (Met) in New York and found that at least 77 of its oldest antiquities and 59 paintings are somehow linked to infamous art smuggler Shubhash Kapoor.

🔎 While you are here, check out a full list of the antiquities in the possession of the Met that are linked to Kapoor, who is currently in jail in Tamil Nadu on charges of burglary and idol theft.

🔎 Okay, so artefacts have been stolen from India and taken abroad. Why can’t we just bring them back? Well the biggest challenge India is facing right now is the gap between the artefacts that have been “officially” declared missing and what is surfacing in global markets and being found in museums.

🔎 What are antiquities and what are the laws that protect them? Read our explainer.

🔎 In part 2 of his investigation, Shyamlal look at how over 90 antiquities from Jammu and Kashmir landed up at the Met. About two dozen have been linked to an American mathematician, an associate of a US-based antiques dealer on the radar of investigative agencies. Meanwhile, three are linked to Subhash Kapoor.

🔎 The road to recovering stolen antiquities has been a long and arduous one. But nothing better illustrated the challenges faced by India better than the wall it hit to get a J&K painting back from the US for over six years. Here is what happened.