Prime Minister Narendra Modi has returned from his recent trip to the United States with 157 antiquities that had been stolen from India and found their way to art markets abroad. This welcome announcement underlines that the theft and illicit trafficking of cultural property represents a global challenge and needs global cooperation. In the Indian context, the approaches to address this issue are especially compelling, given the complex layers of archaeological heritage and extensive museum collections that span an expansive geography.
Though a long-standing problem, cultural racketeering has burgeoned during the COVID-19 pandemic. Globally, the health crisis has stretched thin the security of both sites and collections owing, to a large extent, to the necessary diversion of resources towards pandemic management.