The United Kingdom’s Oxford University has agreed to return a 500-year-old bronze idol of a saint believed to be stolen from a temple in Tamil Nadu to Bharat.
‘The Council of the University of Oxford on 11 March 2024 supported a claim from the Indian High Commission for the return of a 16th-century bronze sculpture of Saint Tirumankai Alvar from the Ashmolean Museum. This decision will now be submitted to the Charity Commission for approval’, said a statement from the university’s Ashmolean Museum.
The 60cm-tall statue of Saint Tirumankai Alvar was acquired by the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford from Sotheby’s auction house in 1967 from the collection of a collector named Dr J.R. Belmont (1886-1981).
‘We were alerted to the origins of the ancient statue by an independent researcher in November 2023, following which it alerted the Indian High Commission’, said the museum.
The Bharatiya government made a formal request for the bronze idol believed to be stolen from a temple in Tamil Nadu and found its way to a UK museum through auction.
The museum, which holds some of the world’s most famous art and archaeology artefacts, says it acquired the statue in good faith in 1967.
There have been many instances of stolen bharatiya artefacts being restored from the UK to Bharat, most recently in August 2023 when a limestone carved relief sculpture, originating from Andhra Pradesh, and a Navaneetha Krishna bronze sculpture originating from 17th century Tamil Nadu, were handed over to the Indian High Commissioner to the UK following a joint US-UK investigation involving Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiques Unit.
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