In a major victory for cultural restitution, the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, D.C., has formally returned a 2nd-century schist statue of a seated Buddha to the government of Pakistan. The masterpiece, originating from the Gandhara region, was identified as having been illegally excavated and smuggled out of the country in the late 1960s. The return marks the conclusion of a three-year provenance investigation conducted in collaboration with Homeland Security Investigations.
During the handover ceremony, museum directors stated that the repatriation is part of a broader commitment to ethical collecting and rectifying historical injustices. The statue is a rare example of Kushan-era iconography, blending Hellenistic artistic styles with Buddhist theology. It is scheduled to be prominently displayed at the Taxila Museum later this year, where it will rejoin other artifacts from the same archaeological context.