Dancing Krishna

Dancing Krishna

The path this Chola-era bronze sculpture of a Dancing Krishna took through the antiquities market illustrates the close working relationship between several indicted antiquities dealers.

The Krishna was allegedly smuggled out of India by American antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor in 2005. Images of the Krishna were found among Kapoor's files when authorities raided his gallery at 1242 Madison Ave after his arrest in 2011. They included pictures of the Krishna covered in encrustations. Kapoor had purchased the sculpture on a trip to India in October 2005 and later had it smuggled to New York in a shipment of legal handicrafts, court records show.

Kapoor sent the bronze to the UK in June 2006 to be restored. He sent pictures of the bronze pre- and post-restoration to New York dealer Nancy Wiener and asked her for an appraisal of the sculpture. Wiener appraised its value at USD$3.5 million. Kapoor later sold it for $650,000, according to Wiener's 2016 criminal complaint.

The location of the bronze was unknown until researcher Vijay Kumar identified it among the objects on display in photographs of the Bangkok apartment of Douglas Latchford, a British antiquities trafficker based in Thailand who worked closely with Wiener. Latchford was best known for trafficking Khmer sculptures looted in Cambodia, but his personal collection on display at his apartments in Bangkok and London included several Chola bronzes from India, photos show.

Investigators found that Kapoor had sold the sculpture directly to Latchford in 2006 for USD$650,000. After Latchford's death, authorities presented his daughter Julia Latchford with evidence of its theft, and she agreed to return the bronze sculpture to India. It was returned to India on July 25, 2024.

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Sculpture – statues, carvings, bronzes, reliefs, figurines

Chola

Douglas Latchford

India

Jason Felch

Damien Huffer