Thread by @BanCheneProduct

#Thread On #Stolen #Artefacts

Todays restitution of 10 stolen artefacts to Tamil Nadu is an historic occasion and is the result of a complex global investigation arising out of work done by a citizens activist group - The India Pride Project.

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Each of these restitutions were complex cases and the lessons from these will yield results for future restitution cases not just for Tamil Nadu but for other States and countries.

Though these 10 objects are returned from two countries - America and Australia,

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each of them are unique cases starting from when they were stolen from India, smuggled out and eventually landed up in some of the most prestigious museums and collections there.

The case of the Chola Bronze Nataraja stolen from Punnainallur in 1971 - was not a

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perfect crime but has since shown up the lacunae and loopholes within our judicial and criminal process when it comes to combating antiquities trafficking. The temple trustees promptly reported the theft of 4 bronzes incl the Nataraja but the case was hushed up by

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giving them replacement icons and the FIR was closed. Hearing about the crime during an agamic conference in 2018 one of our volunteers reached out to us and helped us track a pre theft photograph of the original Nataraja - once we had it, it was a simple case of

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matching it to the Asia Soceity Museum in Nyc and proofs submitted by us to the ASI and the Nyc District Attorney's office. However, the year of theft being so close to the 1970 UN Convention and the replacement icons were dampners which the other side tried to use

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against the case for India. However, going by the concept of common law that a stolen object continues to be stolen object and that we could trace the original noting in the temple asset register on the actual date of the crime and image matching the actual artefact

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the NYC Deputy DA Col Mathew Boggdanos and his team could ensure the Nataraja returned to India. We are currently working with the village committee to appeal to the TN state government by submitting all the proof that the temple has a robust security system incl a strong

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room and CCTV cameras for safety and also how the temple in particular and village as a whole would rejoice at the homecoming of their Lord.

Similar is the case of the chola Alingana Murthy ( Shiva embracing Parvathi) - I first voiced doubts on the acquisition of the

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Ball State Museum of the bronze in 2017 after noticing that the bronze has a tamil pedestal inscription that read "dipambalpurathu Sivigai Nayagar ". The Museum then disclosed that they had purchased the bronze from notorious smuggler Subhash Kapoor and made

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public the provenance records which we could prove as fake with help from US Homeland security investigations aided by investigative reporter Mr Jason Felch. Ball State museum relinquished their tile and handed over the bronze to India.

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The other 3 bronzes from America in this lost are also from raids as part of Operation Hidden Idol on various warehouses and storage locations of Art of Past Subash Kapoor's gallery in Nyc.

The main artefacts returning from Australia are the Chola Bronze Standing Sambandar

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which was stolen from the Sayavanam temple in Sirkazhi in the 1960's not before he was documented by the French Institute in Pondicherry. The bronze was trafficked by self acclaimed smuggler dealer William Wolff and sold without any provenance information to the National

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gallery of Australia. We managed to match the IFP archive image to the NGA exhibit and the restitution happened.

The case of Chola bronze Dancing Sambandar and the two granite door guardians - again acquired from Kapoor by the NGA were exposed when we could match

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robber offering photos of Kapoor's suppliers revealed by the US homeland security investigations showing the icons freshly looted.

All these cases emphasise the need for documenting our icons which is the best way for us to solve these crimes while calling out

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museums and collectors to do better due deligence while acquiring asian Art. The tamil Nadu police should also review their policy for grading police stations based on open FIRs and instead reopen those cases involving idol theft closed with the remark Idols not found.

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The majority of todays returns are directly linked to temples and we submit our humble request to the Tamil Nadu Government to ensure they work with the temples to reinstate them in their original abodes.

S. Vijay Kumar
Co-Founder India Pride Project
Author - The Idol Thief