Federal authorities say they found a priceless Buddhist statue at a home in Arizona, and agents packed the statue so it can be sent back to India.
Homeland Security Investigations says work on the case started in October 2019. Agents got a tip there was a potentially ancient statue at a home in Phoenix.
The owner was already suspicious of the 3-feet-tall, 500-pound sculpture that she’d inherited and told agents that it was likely bought more than a half century ago in the Middle East.
Nearly a year went by and authorities contacted a professor at Northern Arizona University to help identify the statue. The archaeologist who specializes in Asian art confirmed to investigators that it is of a Mahayana Buddhist goddess and dates back to the ninth century.
