Police confirm idol in Australian gallery was stolen from Tamu Nadu temple

Tamil Nadu police have confirmed that a 1000-year-old stone sculpture of Ardhanarisvara in the Art Gallery of New South Wales (NSW) in Sydney had been stolen from Virddhagireesvarar temple in Vriddhachalam, Tamil Nadu.

 The gallery, in reply to an email sent by this correspondent earlier, admitted that it failed to verify the provenance documentation that keeps track of successive ownership of the artefact, and cross check with the previous owner thoroughly before buying the sculpture from Kapoor in 2004. An NSW spokesperson said “the gallery will return the artefact should it be proven to be stolen.” The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra is already under investigation with regard to a Nataraja idol from Tamil Nadu that has been linked to Kapoor’s operations. 

The theft came to light through the "collaborative effort with two journalists in the United States [Chasing Aphrodite] and Australia, and a blogger on art of South India based in Singapore", the media coverage of this brought the missing idol to the notice of the authorities.

Sources in the police told The Hindu that officers conducted a preliminary investigation and found that in 2002, the temple officials removed the idol, which was placed in the outer wall of the sanctum, as it was partly damaged. The officials had put in place a poor replica, and it is in worship since then. The damaged sculpture, considered by experts as one of the valuable works of Chola art, was apparently kept inside the temple. The police, after investigation, concluded that the idol was stolen.

A. Srivathsan, A. V. Ragunathan, 'Police confirm idol in Australian gallery was stolen from T.N. temple' The Hindu, October 9, 2013

Vignette: Aradhnareshwara