Australia returns stolen Gandhara sculpture to Pakistan.
The Australian museum paid a startling sum of $275,000 to buy the artefact in 2006, which has been dated to between the third and fourth centuries.
Its current estimated value is $500,000.
According to Pakistan’s high commissioner in Australia, the sculpture was acquired by the Australian National Gallery from Indian New York private art collector Subash Chandra Kapoor.
“It was later discovered that Chandra Kapoor had been running an illegal art business,” High Commissioner Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri told Aaj News.
It has been said of him, “He was engaged in all kinds of illicit enterprises, including smuggling and excavation of artefacts.”
The high commissioner said last month that the value had increased to well over $500,000 USD.
