Subhash Kapoor: Steal, Smuggle, Sell

Words by Bilal Shahid

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In the 1920s, travel posters, made for steamship lines and airlines, became extremely popular. The style changed notably in the 1920s, to focus attention on the product being advertised. The images became simpler, precise, more linear, more dynamic, and were often placed against a single color background. They conveyed a sense of power and safety – basically, what travellers were supposed to feel boarding liners and trains and visiting new destinations. (Available as print)

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Subhash Kapoor: Steal, Smuggle, Sell

Subhash Kapoor (center)

Subhash Kapoor, once a celebrated figure among New York’s elite art dealers, was renowned for sourcing museum-quality antiquities. But beneath this polished reputation lay a dark empire built on stolen treasures. In April 2024, the world saw the return of 30 priceless artifacts, valued at $3 million, to Cambodia and Indonesia—just a fragment of a far-reaching story. Two years earlier, in 2022, 192 looted artifacts were returned to Pakistan. That same year, over 300 stolen relics, worth nearly $4 million, were repatriated to India.

Kapoor's fall from grace began in 2011 with his arrest on trafficking charges, which unraveled an extensive global smuggling network. Investigations revealed a web of illicit operations spanning Afghanistan, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Thailand. Over a decade, authorities seized approximately 2,600 stolen artifacts from Kapoor’s New York storage units, each bearing falsified provenance. The value of these recovered treasures exceeded $143 million, with countless more still missing. In 2019, Kapoor was also indicted in New York, charged with conspiring to traffic stolen antiquities alongside seven co-defendants. The investigation by the district attorney's office and Homeland Security Investigations highlighted the staggering scale of Kapoor’s operations.