Kathmandu, June 24
Nepal has received two cultural antiquities repatriated from the United States following their recovery by the American authorities. At a special handover ceremony held at the Consulate General of Nepal in New York recently, the New York County District Attorney’s Office formally transferred ownership of a 13th-century bronze statue of Padma Pani and a 16th-century wooden statue of Nrityadevi (Goddess of Dance) to the government of Nepal.
The transfer was formalised through the signing of the Minutes of Concurrence by Consul General of Nepal in New York, Dadhiram Bhandari, and Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, Chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, according to the Consulate General of Nepal in New York.
During the ceremony, Consul General Bhandari said the Padma Pani statue originally belonged to Tham-Bahil (Vikramashila Mahavihara, Bhagwan Bahal) in Kathmandu and is believed to have been smuggled into the US at an unknown date between 1971 and 1987. Similarly, the Nrityadevi statue, originally from I-Baha Bahi in Patan, Lalitpur, was reportedly smuggled between 1969 and 1983. It was later seized from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he said.
The artefacts were recovered through coordinated efforts involving the New York County District Attorney’s Office, US Homeland Security Investigations and partner institutions. The antiquities are scheduled to arrive in Nepal on June 25 and will be handed over to the Department of Archaeology for conservation and eventual restoration to their original sites.
