On May 13, 2026, the United States formally returned more
than 450 rare historical and cultural artifacts to Pakistan, valued at approximately
$23 million, at a ceremony held at the Islamabad Museum. An exhibition titled
‘Legacy Returns Home’ was also inaugurated on the occasion under the
chairmanship of the Federal Minister, in which 170 selected items from four
different consignments returned between August 2021 and August 2025 were put on
display for the public. These include a rare Buddha statue from the 2nd century
AD, valued at approximately $1.1 million, in addition to several rare items
from Gandhara and Mehrgarh.
Interestingly, there is a slight discrepancy in official
statements regarding the total number of artifacts. The US Embassy confirmed
the recent return of more than 450 items, while Pakistan’s Press Information
Department said a total of 513 artifacts have been returned since 2007. Some US
sources and reports also give the figure as 514. This discrepancy could be due
to the scope of the count or the inclusion of a single item later, but it is
not appropriate to assume that any single number is definitive.
The recovery of these artifacts from the US was the result
of a coordinated effort over several years between the Antiquities Trafficking
Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, US Homeland Security, and
Pakistani authorities.
According to available evidence, many of these artifacts
were recovered during investigations into international smuggling networks, the
most prominent of which is Subhash Kapoor, considered one of the world’s most
notorious antiquities traffickers. Kapoor ran an art gallery in New York and
sold looted antiquities from various countries to wealthy buyers, museums and
private collections. According to US and Indian investigations, his network
illegally traded thousands of antiquities, and he was convicted in India after
his arrest in 2011, while cases were also ongoing against him in the US.
Two Pakistani-born individuals, Zahid Parvez and Zeeshan
Butt, also came to light in the 2022 investigation by Manhattan authorities.
According to the investigation, these individuals used business connections in
Islamabad, Dubai, Hong Kong and Bangkok to transport antiquities obtained from
Afghanistan, Pakistan and India to the international art market.
Another name that comes up is Nayef Homsi, from whom 45
recovered antiquities were handed over to Pakistan by the US in 2020. According
to US authorities, he was involved in the illegal purchase, sale and export of
ancient antiquities from South Asia.
However, in all these investigations, the names of the local
elements involved in the actual theft, illegal excavation and smuggling within
Pakistan have not been fully revealed to the public. The question remains
whether any Pakistani government official, archaeology department official or
customs official was involved in the entire process; the information available
in this regard is limited and mere speculation is not appropriate, but it is a
question that the relevant institutions must answer.
Similarly, it is not clear whether any case related to the
theft and smuggling of these antiquities within Pakistan has been registered
with any police station, FIA or customs. The protection of national heritage
requires that the government, instead of limiting this matter to a mere
exhibition and symbolic incident, devise a transparent and coherent mechanism
to determine those responsible and prevent such incidents in the future.
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