Tamil Nadu government talks to Australia National Gallery for return of 7 stolen idols

Tamil Nadu government has begun talks with the National Gallery of Australia to recover several crores worth seven ancient temple idols stolen from the state and displayed in the Canberra-based museum.

Kirsten Paisley, deputy director, NGA along with the officials of the Australian Consul General met Tamil Nadu Tamil Development Minister Ma Foi K Pandiarajan and IGP of idol wing AG Pon Manickavel at the Secretariat to gather information on the issue of the provenance of Indian works displayed at the NGA.

"We have shared information on the antiquity of the idols, its origin, temple location and even literary proofs with the Australian authorities to stake a claim on the seven idols which were stolen from Tamil Nadu several years ago and being displayed at their museum at Canberra in Australia," said Minister Pandiarajan.

He said he was hopeful of recovering the stolen idols from Australia at the earliest and pointed to the existence of an extradition treaty between India and Australia to recover the artefacts.

The sculptures are a pair of 12th century 'Dwarabalagar' of basalt from the Pandia period; Chola era 12th century – bronze idol of dancing child-saint Sambandar, Aarumugam stone idol and granite Nandi; a 11th century bronze statue of a trident with auspicious Kali (Bhadra kali) from Chola period; and a 1000-year-old antique dancing Sambandar idol.

The Tamil Nadu idol wing police have booked seven persons including notorious artefacts smuggler Subhas Kapoor, Vallavaprakash and Aditya Prakash of Indo Nepal Art Centre in Mumbai and Nachu alias Lakshmi Narasimman of Silpa Vatika Gallery for the offence of theft, smuggling and illegal export of idols including these seven idols. Idol wing chief Pon Manickavel solved the 22-year-old idol theft case whose file was in 1996 as untraceable a year after registering the case.

The police said the stolen idols were identified with the help of the photos taken by the French Institute of Pondicherry even as the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment department failed to maintain any worthwhile records after 1959 which helped the accused to escape. The police said that the documents and the investigation revealed that sever stolen idols belongs to Tamil Nadu temple.

Two years ago, Australia had returned three artefacts, including an idol of goddess Pratyangira, stolen from a Shiva temple in Cuddalore district in Tamil Nadu. In 2014, then Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott had returned two statues of Nataraja and Ardhanariswarar stolen from temples in the state.