Antique bronze idols of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana, which were reportedly stolen from Nagapattinam in the 1970s, are set to return home due to efforts taken by art enthusiasts, officers of Idol Wing CID, and the High Commission of India (HCI), London.
In August 2019, the HCI, London, was informed by members of the India Pride Project that four antique idols — Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman, stolen from a temple built during the Vijayanagara period in Tamil Nadu and smuggled out of India, may be in the U.K. It was conveyed to HCI that the idol of Rama was suspected to be in the possession of an individual collector in London.
“Once the idol was verified by comparison with relevant records, the matter was taken up with the Art and Antique Unit of the London Metropolitan Police as well as the Idol Wing of Tamil Nadu police,” said Rahul Nangare, First Secretary, HCI, London.
The Idol Wing of Tamil Nadu police, headed by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Abhay Kumar Singh, sent a comprehensive report confirming that the theft took place in 1978 at Rajagopalasamy Temple in Anandamanglam, then in Mayuram taluk, and also provided expert opinion about match of the idol with evidence from the French Institute of Pondicherry photo archive.
The Art and Antique Unit of the London Metropolitan Police, who investigated the matter based on information and documents provided to them, contacted the present owner of the statue and conveyed the Mission’s request to return the statue as it appeared, prima facie , to be a stolen idol from a temple in India. The art collector turned out to be a good faith purchaser, who had carried out due diligence checks including through a check of the Art Loss Register Certificates. The Met Police further found that the vendor involved was now deceased due to which there were no grounds to open any investigation in the U.K.
Interestingly, the owner of the Rama idol informed the HCI and Met Police that he was in possession of two other idols, of Sita and Lakshamana, which he has handed over to the High Commissioner Gaitri Issar Kumar on Tuesday at India House.
On Tuesday, all three idols were formally handed over to Tamil Nadu government through a virtual meeting attended by Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Prahlad Singh Patel. The event was also attended by senior officials from Tamil Nadu, including Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam and Director General of Police J.K. Tripathy.
The sculptures of Lord Rama, Lakshman and Mata Sita that are 90.5 cm, 78 cm and 74.5 cm in height, respectively.
Mr. Patel thanked the British police, the Tamil Nadu government’s Idol Wing, the Archaeological Survey of India, and the HCI for making the recovery possible. He said only 13 sculptures had been recovered from abroad from Independence till 2014, when the Narendra Modi government came to power. Since 2014, more than 40 sculptures had been received, he said.
( Inputs from Damini Nath, Delhi )
