MUMBAI: Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli and Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma got married in Italy Monday, they said in a statement, ending weeks of frenzied speculation that they were getting hitched.
“Today we have promised each other to be bound in love forever. We are truly blessed to share the news with you,” the celebrity couple said, adding that it had been a “beautiful day.”
A statement sent to journalists said the wedding had been attended by close family and a few friends as “they wished their wedding to be a very private affair.”
The ceremony was performed as per Hindu rituals, it added.
Kohli and Sharma, both 29, posted different photos of themselves smiling together and dressed in colorful Indian wedding garb on their Twitter feeds late Monday.
The statement added that the couple will host a reception in New Delhi for relatives on Dec. 21, followed by a celebration in Mumbai on Dec. 26.
They will live in Mumbai, the home of India’s Hindi film industry, it said.
Rumors of their impending nuptials started swirling recently when Kohli pulled out of India’s limited-overs matches against Sri Lanka and Sharma also ducked out of her busy acting schedule in December.
Indian TV channels have billed it as the “wedding of the year.”
Kohli and Sharma started dating in 2013 after they met during the filming of a shampoo advert.
The high-profile couple made their first public appearance a year later during a football match.
Kohli is one of the world’s highest-paid athletes and a huge star in cricket-obsessed India, and Sharma is one of the top actresses in the country’s multibillion-dollar film industry.
India’s Kohli, Sharma marry in Italy
India’s Kohli, Sharma marry in Italy
Cambodia takes back looted historic artifacts handled by British art dealer
- The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodian officials on Friday received more than six dozen historic artifacts described as part of the country’s cultural heritage that had been looted during decades of war and instability.
At a ceremony attended by Deputy Prime Minister Hun Many, the 74 items were unveiled at the National Museum in Phnom Penh after their repatriation from the United Kingdom.
The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia.
“This substantial restitution represents one of the most important returns of Khmer cultural heritage in recent years, following major repatriations in 2021 and 2023 from the same collection,” the Culture Ministry said in a statement. “It marks a significant step forward in Cambodia’s continued efforts to recover, preserve, and restore its ancestral legacy for future generations.”
The artifacts were described as dating from the pre-Angkorian period through the height of the Angkor Empire, including “monumental sandstone sculptures, refined bronze works, and significant ritual objects.” The Angkor Empire, which extended from the ninth to the 15th century, is best known for the Angkor Wat archaeological site, the nation’s biggest tourist attraction.
Latchford was a prominent antiquities dealer who allegedly orchestrated an operation to sell looted Cambodian sculptures on the international market.
From 1970 to the 1980s, during Cambodia’s civil wars and the communist Khmer Rouge ‘s brutal reign, organized looting networks sent artifacts to Latchford, who then sold them to Western collectors, dealers, and institutions. These pieces were often physically damaged, having been pried off temple walls or other structures by the looters.
Latchford was indicted in a New York federal court in 2019 on charges including wire fraud and conspiracy. He died in 2020, aged 88, before he could be extradited to face charges.
Cambodia, like neighboring Thailand, has benefited from a trend in recent decades involving the repatriation of art and archaeological treasures. These include ancient Asian artworks as well as pieces lost or stolen during turmoil in places such as Syria, Iraq and Nazi-occupied Europe. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the prominent institutions that has been returning illegally smuggled art, including to Cambodia.
“The ancient artifacts created and preserved by our ancestors are now being returned to Cambodia, bringing warmth and joy, following the country’s return to peace,” said Hun Many, who is the younger brother of Prime Minister Hun Manet.
