The UK’s prestigious Oxford College has agreed to return to India a 500-year-old bronze idol of a saint believed to have been stolen from a temple in Tamil Nadu.
“On 11 March 2024, the Oxford College Council supported a declare by the Excessive Fee of India for the return of a sixteenth century bronze sculpture of Saint Tirumankai Alvar from the Ashmolean Museum. This determination will now be submitted to Charity Fee for approval,” stated a press release from the college’s Ashmolean Museum.
The 60cm tall statue of Saint Tirumankai Alvar was acquired by the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford College from Sotheby’s public sale home in 1967 from the gathering of a collector named Dr JR Belmont (1886-1981).
The museum says it was alerted to the traditional statue’s origins by an unbiased researcher in November final 12 months, after which it alerted the Indian Excessive Fee.
The Indian authorities has submitted a proper request to acquire the bronze idol believed to have been stolen from a temple in Tamil Nadu and located its method to a UK museum via an public sale.
The museum, which homes among the world’s most well-known inventive and archaeological artifacts, says it acquired the statue in “good religion” in 1967.
There have been a number of instances of stolen Indian artifacts being restored from the UK to India, most just lately in August final 12 months when a aid sculpture carved in limestone, originating from Andhra Pradesh, and a bronze sculpture “Navaneetha Krishna ” originating from seventeenth century Tamil Nadu, have been handed over to the Indian Excessive Fee in the UK following a joint US-UK investigation involving Scotland Yard’s Artwork and Antiquities Unit.
