New York museum returns stolen antiquities to ASI
Stolen decades ago, two Indian sculptures — Mahishasurmardini (a sculpture of Goddess Durga slaying the buffalo-headed demon Mahishasur) dated 12th Century, and head of a male deity hailing from 5th-6th Century AD — are now finally back home.
Housed in a New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art for years, the process for their return to India had started last year when the museum authorities approached the Modi Government, expressing their desire to voluntarily return the duo ancient sculptures.
On August 10, John Guy, the Metropolitan museum’s senior curator of South and South East Asian Art, travelled all the way to the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) headquarters in the national Capital to deliver the antiquities to the agency’s officials. A senior ASI official said the Goddess Durga sculpture was illegally exported from a temple in Uttrakhand while the sculpture of the deity made of limestone was stolen from Nagarjunakonda, an archaeological site in western Andhra Pradesh
“We were pleasantly surprised when the US museum officials contacted us in the matter. During verification of their antiquities, they had suspected the two sculptures were stolen from here and moved in their collection.
“They had sought a detail about the sculptures which we provided immediately. The Durga statue has found mention in our 1969 publication, The Archaeology of Kumann by KP Nautiyal, in which it is described as being housed in the Chakravarteswara Temple at Baijnath, a medieval capital in Uttarakhand. The temple was constructed in 1204,” the official added.
Talking about the history of the head of the male deity, identified as ‘Bodhisattava’, the official said it was part of the excavated inventory of the Nagarjunakonda site museum.
The sharing of the details followed signing of an agreement between India and the New York museum which, it seems, did not want itself to be found on the wrong side of the law by keeping the stolen items in view of the UNESCO convention 1970.
Under the international treaty for preventing the illicit export or transfer of cultural property, which India ratified in 1972, items taken out of the country after that date have to be forfeited and returned home with no compensation.
Welcoming the New York museum’s gesture, ASI spokesperson DN Dimri said, “It is a responsible move and we hope other museums too will follow thesuit in case they have our stolen antiquities.”