The sleuths bringing back India’s stolen treasures

The Koh-i-Noor, first found in written records in 1628, has long been the subject of acrimony between India and its former coloniser, with a persistent demand by the Indian government and its citizens for its return. As this piece in India’s Mint newspaper explains bluntly, “The main controversy around the diamond is that the British give an impression to its younger generation that the Koh-i-Noor was a gift from India and make no official mention of the violent history behind acquiring it.”

The renewed uproar about the Koh-i-Noor has also led to intensifying questioning of all the other resources – not just the sparkly stones –  taken away from the Global South by western powers over centuries of trading and ruling. “Wear the diamond, give back the rest,” suggests this op-ed piece in The Indian Express.

Among the “rest” are priceless cultural artefacts – and this is what the India Pride Project concerns itself with. This citizen movement for the restitution of stolen and smuggled antiques (particularly statues) from public museums and private collectors across the world was started in 2013 by shipping executive S Vijay Kumar and public policy expert Anuraag Saxena from Singapore, although Kumar had already spent a decade helping to recover artefacts.

These sleuths, with the help of a small, anonymous global team of volunteers from various fields – who communicate mostly online – have brought back to India several millions worth of antiquities from countries like Australia, Singapore, Germany, UK and the US. Most recently, they made the news when their efforts aided the investigation that prompted the National Gallery of Australia to return antiques worth $2.2 million – stolen by art smuggler Subash Kapoor – to the Indian government. Their targets include both artefacts taken forcibly out of India during the British colonial era, and those more recently stolen and smuggled from temples and public collections.

How they go about their work

Kumar, who is now based in Chennai in south India, and Saxena, who remains in Singapore, talk with ease about field trips to document missing idols and sting operations with auction houses. While the information about missing antiquities has always existed, what was lacking was official will to push for their return, they say. Kumar puts things in perspective: between 1970 to 2012, the Indian government managed to bring back 19 artefacts, while it has restituted 600 in just the last 10 years (with their help).

This is not to suggest they are some kind of gung-ho art vigilante group, given the amount of plodding through paperwork and complex negotiation work they do. Their work involves advocacy, activism and coordinating between governments and law enforcement agencies such as Customs, Europol and Homeland Security within India and outside. Kumar says, “In the past when they reached out to India, nobody replied, so now we are doing that job.”

“India Pride project is more of a network than an organisation – we have no money, no employees and no authority,” admits Saxena candidly, even a tad proudly. The entirely volunteer team monitors and flags suspicious objects by following paper trails and making personal visits to auction houses, art galleries and museums, and then liaises with official agencies to make the case for repatriation.