New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Wednesday that he would encourage Britain’s King Charles to return the Koh-i-Noor Diamond, making the remark during the British monarch’s visit to the United States.
Asked about the historic gem at a press conference held hours before a ceremony to remember victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Mamdani - who is Indian American - said, "If I were to speak to the king separately from that, I would probably encourage him to return the Koh-i-Noor Diamond."
Later the same day, the king and Mamdani spoke at the memorial ceremony. Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the mayor’s public statement. Mamdani’s office did not respond to a follow-up request asking whether Mamdani had raised the issue in his conversation with the monarch at the event.
The Koh-i-Noor is a 105-carat diamond that India has repeatedly asked Britain to return. The historic record cited in public accounts notes that Britain’s then colonial governor-general of India arranged for the diamond to be given to Queen Victoria in 1850 after the East India Company annexed the region of Punjab in 1849 and removed the diamond from a deposed Indian leader.
On Wednesday the king participated in a separate act of remembrance, laying a floral bouquet at the memorial located where the World Trade Center’s twin towers once stood. India gained independence from British rule in 1947. The legacy of British colonization and the atrocities reported during that period remain sensitive subjects within India.
Indian officials and commentators have previously described the Koh-i-Noor as a "valued piece of art with strong roots in our nation’s history." For many Indians, the diamond’s continued presence in Britain symbolizes wounds from the colonial era. Records maintained by the Historic Royal Palaces charity list earlier owners of the gem, including India’s Mughal emperors, shahs of Iran, emirs of Afghanistan, and Sikh maharajas.
The mayor’s public encouragement to the king adds a high-profile voice to a longstanding diplomatic and cultural dispute centered on the diamond’s ownership. At the same time, key parties - including Buckingham Palace and the mayor’s office - have either declined to comment or not responded to inquiries, leaving immediate next steps unclear.
The comments came against the backdrop of the king’s U.S. visit and the solemn commemoration of 9/11 victims, linking a debate over cultural property to the wider diplomatic engagements taking place during the trip.