In a major first, the University of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum has returned a 16th-century bronze idol of saint Thirumankai Alvar to India for its journey back to the temple in Tamil Nadu where it belongs.
The sacred icon of saint Thirumankai Alvar was acquired by the museum in a Sotheby’s auction in 1967 before being alerted to its origins at the temple of Shri Soundararaja Perumal in Thadikombu by an independent researcher in November 2019.
This led to the museum requesting the High Commission of India in London to formally confirm its provenance, with the process concluding in a formal hand-over ceremony at India House on Tuesday evening.
“This is a really significant moment for the Ashmolean Museum,” said Dr Xa Sturgis, director of Britain’s first public museum dating back to the 17th century.
“It was over five years ago that we first became aware that there was evidence that this bronze had been photographed in the temple in Tamil Nadu. At that point it became evident that there was no legitimate way in which it could have left India.
“And, even though the museum acquired this bronze in 1967 in good faith, we opened a conversation with the Indian High Commission about the possibility of returning this object to India,” he said.
Believed to have been stolen from the temple and replaced with a modern replica, the bronze sculpture is now set for its return journey after experts from the museum travelled to India to establish its roots with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Tamil Nadu state government officials and temple authorities.
“The process of getting an artefact returned to where it comes from, in this case a deity at the Soundararaja Perumal temple in Tamil Nadu, we had to be able to prove provenance without really getting into how it got out of India,” said Vikram Doraiswami, Indian High Commissioner to the UK.
“Really, credit to the Ashmolean Museum who took this seriously and worked with us so patiently. This is the first time, I understand, they have actually returned anything. It is a major step for the museum to recognise that while being a repository of the art heritage of the world, integrity requires that items have been reached in the right way,” he said.
After the transfer deed was approved by the Indian Ministry of Culture and signed off by the High Commission, the bronze is now ready to be shipped to India for the ASI to undertake due diligence and work with the state government on restoring it to its former glory.
“I am really excited that this statue is on its way home to Tamil Nadu, the part of India where my dad’s from. Particularly important is the difference between just seeing it as a beautiful work of art, which it is, but also as a sacred object from a living temple,” said Baroness Thangam Debbonnaire, House of Lords peer and cultural strategist.
The hand-over ceremony of ancient Indian antiquities also included four other iconic artefacts stolen and smuggled out of the country and restored with the help of the Home Security Investigation (HSI) – the investigative arm for the Department of Homeland Security in the US, the Metropolitan Police’s Art and Antiques Unit in London and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in India.
Statuettes named ‘Seated Ganesha with Parasol’, ‘Dancing Ganesha’ and ‘Dancing Child Saint Sambandar/Bal Krishna’ and a ‘Pedestal’ were among those on display at Gandhi Hall ahead of their return journey.
“While today’s event celebrates the successful recovery and return of these priceless cultural items, there’s more work to be done so other criminal organisations can be held to account for depriving access to significant antiquities,” said William Crogan, of the HSI at the US Embassy in London.
The Indian High Commission said the return of these antiquities is testimony to the strength of the India-UK bilateral cooperation and multi-agency cross-border collaboration to tackle the menace of smuggling.
“The illicit trade in cultural property is almost always transnational, with criminals exploiting differences in legislation and the complexities of sharing information across jurisdictions. Effective law enforcement cooperation is absolutely essential for countering the threat together,” said William Lyne, Met Police’s Head of Economic and Cybercrime Command.
