Saint Tirumangai Alvar Idol Returned to India by Ashmolean Museum

Key facts

• The University of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology (Ashmolean Museum) returned a stolen 16th-century bronze idol of Saint Tirumangai Alvar to the Indian High Commission in London.
• The idol was originally stolen in 1952 from the Soundararaja Perumal Koil temple located in a village in the Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu.
• The India Pride Project identified the bronze by matching it with 1957 temple photographs preserved at the Institut Français de Pondichéry (IFP).
• The Ashmolean Museum acquired the idol in 1967 from the collection of private collector Dr J R Belmont, who had purchased it from Sotheby’s.
• The repatriation process involved coordination between the museum, the Indian High Commission, and the Tamil Nadu Idol Wing Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
• The article identifies other stolen items from the same temple that are yet to be repatriated, including a Vishnu icon from the Kimbell Museum, a Kaliya Krishna from the Asian Art Museum, and a Devi idol.
• This handover follows a decision by the US-based Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art to restitute bronzes stolen from the Alathur and Veeracholapuram temples in Tamil Nadu.