Federal agents have recovered seven rare artifacts looted from India at the Honolulu Museum of Art.

The museum handed over the cultural objects Wednesday to agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations of New York after they were tipped off by a visitor who had spotted one of the pieces displayed at the museum.

The recovered pieces, part of an ongoing international investigation called Operation Hidden Idol, were flown to New York and stored in a climate-controlled facility. They will be used as evidence in a global art theft case before they are ultimately repatriated to India.

Special Agent Brenton Easter said, "Our goal in the investigation is to try and dismantle an international criminal organization that is dealing in illicit cultural property."

The art museum was not aware of the items’ provenance when they became part of the collection between 1991 and 2003.

The items include figurines, architectural fragments and tiles that were removed from religious temples and ancient Buddhist sites, according to a news release from the federal agency.

"The people of India are victims and the museum was a victim," said Easter, who spoke to the media Wednesday.

The estimated worth of the thousands of antiquities seized so far in the ongoing operation exceeds $150 million.

Easter praised the art museum’s transparency and assistance in the investigation. "Hopefully other institutions and museums will follow their lead," he said.

A visitor to the museum who had read in a newspaper about the international investigation recognized the name of a New York City museum on a label displayed next to a 2,000-year old terra-cotta rattle artifact that resembles the Buddhist god of wealth. It indicated the piece was a gift from Art of the Past, a Manhattan gallery formerly owned by Subhash Kapoor.

An agent then visited the museum, verified the work and contacted Museum Director Stephan Jost in August 2014.

Jost said they looked into the matter and discovered six other pieces at the museum that either came from Kapoor or an individual who bought from him and gave the artifact to the museum.

"Looting is a serious problem in the art market and all buyers of art, including museums, need to be mindful that some antiquities have been illegally obtained," Jost said in a news release.

Kapoor is in custody in India facing trial for allegedly looting tens of millions of dollars’ worth of rare antiquities from several nations, according to Homeland Security officials.