FBI Director Patel returns looted cultural artifacts to Indonesian President Prabowo

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto received a collection of cultural artifacts from the country's Papua region that had been illegally taken to the United States, officials said Thursday.

The handover took place late Wednesday during a meeting with FBI Director Kash Patel at Prabowo’s residence in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. Patel arrived in Jakarta shortly after talks with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet concerning joint efforts to combat international online scam operations that cheat victims out of billions of dollars annually.

The exchange underscored growing cooperation between Indonesia and the U.S. in recovering stolen cultural heritage and returning the items to the country of origin, Indonesia Culture Minister Fadli Zon said.

The artifacts from Papua are part of the cultural heritage of the Dani and Asmat tribes and Lake Sentani communities. They were repatriated through cooperation between Indonesia’s Culture Ministry and the FBI after provenance research established the objects had been smuggled out of Indonesia, Zon said.

“These are very valuable objects because this repatriation process is part of our effort to restore our cultural sovereignty,” Zon said, adding that the artifacts will be displayed at Indonesia’s National Museum.

Images from Indonesia's Presidential Secretariat show several polished stone ax heads and ceremonial objects traditionally associated with Papuan societies.

Traditional Papuan stone axes were more than utilitarian tools. Among highland communities such as the Dani, they historically served as symbols of wealth and status, were exchanged in marriage and ceremonial transactions and were often passed down as treasured ancestral heirlooms, the Culture Ministry said.

The return is the latest in a series of efforts by U.S. authorities to recover and repatriate Southeast Asian cultural property that was trafficked through international antiquities networks, the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta said in a statement.

Earlier this month, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton announced the return of two bronze, Buddhist sculptures depicting Avalokiteshvara from the eighth century, the embassy said.

During a repatriation ceremony at the Indonesian Consulate on July 10, Clayton said U.S. authorities would continue working with Homeland Security Investigations to combat illicit trafficking in cultural property and return stolen artworks to their origin countries.

The sculptures were stolen from Indonesian archaeological sites and sold to an American collector by the late antiquities dealer Douglas Latchford. The sculptures were among 34 Southeast Asian antiquities voluntarily relinquished by the collector in 2021 after investigators determined they had been looted.

The Indonesian sculptures were removed decades ago by organized looters before entering the international art market through Latchford, a Bangkok-based dealer who was indicted by U.S. authorities in 2019 for allegedly orchestrating a large-scale trafficking scheme involving antiquities looted from Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries. The case was later dismissed following his death, the U.S. embassy said.

The FBI has previously assisted Indonesia in recovering stolen cultural objects, including bronze statues and artifacts from historical and archaeological sites, according to Zon, who expressed hope that the cooperation on cultural repatriation and restitution would continue.

Indonesia has intensified efforts in recent years to track down cultural treasures scattered abroad through colonial-era collecting, theft and illicit trafficking, including from the Netherlands, which colonized Indonesia for centuries.