Mary Shepherd Slusser, an influential scholar of Nepalese art and architecture, collected roughly 500 artifacts, many of which she later sold or donated to museums in the USWaadaa Collage

US scholar who studied Nepal’s heritage smuggled stolen sacred artifacts: Himal Investigation

Updated on:

16 Sep 2026, 12:27 pm

A prominent American scholar celebrated for documenting Nepal’s cultural heritage illicitly acquired hundreds of artifacts, including sacred objects, and moved them out of the country, an investigation published by Himal Southasian on Wednesday alleged.

Mary Shepherd Slusser, an influential scholar of Nepalese art and architecture, collected roughly 500 artifacts, many of which she later sold or donated to museums in the US, according to an investigation by Himal Southasian published Wednesday.

The investigation, written by art-crime specialist Erin L Thompson, draws on archival material, including Slusser’s own diaries and correspondence, to document her collecting practices after she arrived in Nepal in November 1965.

Slusser moved to Kathmandu after her husband, Harry Robert “Bob” Slusser, was appointed deputy director of the Investment Generation Division at the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Within weeks of arriving, she purchased a small bronze sculpture depicting the Hindu deity Shiva and his consort Parvati at the Gokarneshwor Mahadev temple on the northeastern edge of the Kathmandu Valley, according to the investigation.

Slusser wrote in her diary that she was “sure” the boys offering the sculpture had just stolen it because grains of rice used in worship remained attached to it, Himal reported.

The boys initially sought 22 Nepalese rupees for the idol, but Slusser bargained the price down to 14 rupees, then equivalent to $1.82, according to her diary.

She wrote that she did not think “the temple will miss it at all,” the investigation said.

Himal said Slusser subsequently built a collection of roughly 500 artifacts, including numerous sacred objects, some of which eventually entered American museum collections.

The findings present a stark contrast with Slusser’s public reputation as an authority on Nepal’s cultural heritage. She became widely known for her scholarship on the Kathmandu Valley and its art, architecture and religious traditions.

The investigation alleges that while building that scholarly reputation, Slusser was also acquiring stolen cultural objects and illicitly taking them to the US.