Amid the flip-flop over the return of the 105-carat Kohinoor diamond, India has been able to retrieve as many as 18 valuable antiquities, including the famous Yogini Vrishanana, Nataraja, Parrot lady and Uma Parameshwari with many countries like Australia, Canada and France returning them voluntarily.
In a written reply to the lok Sabha recently, Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma said that India has got as many as seven objects from US, followed by the UK (3) and Australia (2) and one antiquity each from countries, including Canada, Germany, Singapore, Holand and France.
“Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is making all efforts to recover stolen antiquities from abroad. Till date, the ASI has recovered 18 antiquities from various countries,” he added. Most of these antiquities were voluntary returned by the respective countries, while India got few of them through court cases, he said.
For instance Yogini Vrishanana, which is now housed in Delhi’s National Museum, was brought back from Paris in 2013 at the initiative of the then Minister of Culture, while Nataraja and Ardhanariswara which were stolen from Tamil Nadu were brought back in 2014 from Australia which had voluntarily returned it. 900-year-old Indian sandstone sculpture of a woman holding a parrot, famously called as ‘Parrot lady’ was handed over by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to his counterpart, Narendra Modi.
Australia Prime Minister Tony Abbott handed back the 900-year-old bronze Hindu “dancing shiva” - taken from India without permission by cultural traffickers - during his trip to close a deal providing Australian uranium to India last year.
Beautiful idol Mahisamardini which was stolen from a temple in Jammu & Kashmir was returned by Germany in 2015 while the Singapore Government returned valuable statue Uma Parameshwari the same year.
To another query, Sharma said there is no estimate available with the ASI on the number of the antiquities that are illegally being smuggled outside the country.