Did US really return stolen antiquities to India following Zohran Mamdani’s remarks? Fact Check
Claim: New York authorities have returned over 657 stolen antiquities following Zohran Mamdani’s comment.
Conclusion: The claim is misleading. The returns resulted from long-running criminal investigations by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit, and Zohran Mamdani’s recent remark about returning the Kohinoor diamond to India is unrelated.
Rating: Misleading 
Several social media users have claimed that the New York authorities have returned stolen antiquities following NYC Mayor, Zohran Mamdani’s comment. Verified X user ‘PicturesFolder’ shared such a post with the caption : “New York authorities have returned over 657 stolen antiquities, valued at $14 million to India. The move comes after Mayor Zohran Mamdani raised the issue of returning the Kohinoor diamond during a recent UK royal visit to the city.” The post gained over 719,000 views and can be seen below –
New York authorities have returned over 657 stolen antiquities, valued at $14 million to India
The move comes after Mayor Zohran Mamdani raised the issue of returning the Kohinoor diamond during a recent UK royal visit to the city pic.twitter.com/FxPEMbHE1W
— non aesthetic things (@PicturesFoIder) May 1, 2026
Other users have shared similar claims that can be seen here and here
FACT CHECK
DigitEYE India decided to investigate this claim and found it to be misleading. The artefacts were returned as part of sustained investigations by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit, not because of any recent remarks by Zohran Mamdani. Mayor Mamdani’s statements about the Kohinoor diamond is unrelated to the effort or action taken by Manhattan Antiquities Trafficking Unit.
We first conducted a web search with the phrase “Mamdani comments on Kohinoor” to learn more about his statement. According to a NBC report published on April 30, 2026, NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani was asked what he would speak to King Charles III about (who was at that time on his US visit), he commented on the Kohinoor topic. The report states his comments : “If I was to speak to the king separately from that, I would probably encourage him to return the Koh-i-Noor diamond,” View a section from the report below –
Following this, we searched about New York authorities returning 657 stolen antiquities and landed on a report, updated on Apr 30, 2026 by India Today. The report mentions how the “ Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has returned 657 stolen artefacts worth nearly $14 million to India after trafficking investigations.” The haul includes rare pieces like a $ million bronze Avalokiteshvara, a $7.5 million sandstone Buddha, sandstone statue of a dancing Ganesh as authorities continue efforts to recover thousands of stolen objects worldwide.
Nowhere in the report mentioned about Mamdani’s comment or his directive. View a section from the report below –
According to a Guardian report, published on Thu 30 Apr 2026 , a “spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office said the ceremony had been scheduled months earlier and was not connected to the royal visit.” Therefore, the real credit of returning over 657 stolen antiquities to India goes to law enforcement investigations spanning over years, not due to Zohran Mamdani’s remarks.
Back in 2024, India and the US signed their first ever deal for the retrieval of antique objects.
Thus, the claim is misleading.
