MELBOURNE, March 30 — Two statues allegedly stolen from temples in India and later bought by Australian galleries are likely to be repatriated within 30 days. The Indian government formally requested the return of a 900-year-old Dancing Shiva statue from the National Gallery of Australia and a stone sculpture of the god Ardhanarishvara from the Art Gallery of New South Wales (NSW) last week, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
The Australian Attorney-General’s Department issued a statement saying that the Art Gallery of NSW had “voluntarily removed” its sculpture from public display – one day after it was announced the National Gallery would remove its allegedly looted statue from exhibition.
Both artifacts were bought from antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor, who is on trial in India for looting and wanted in the US for allegedly masterminding a large-scale antiquities smuggling operation.
A first secretary of India’s High Commission, Tarun Kumar, told the newspaper it was “our expectation” both statues would be returned to India. “We expect a decision in that regard will be taken within the next month,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the Attorney-General’s Department said there was no time limit in the legislation for responding to the Indian government’s request.
The Canberra-based National Gallery paid US$5 million for the Dancing Shiva statue in February 2008. The statue was one of 22 items it bought from Kapoor’s Art of the Past gallery for a total of A$11 million between 2002 and 2011.
The Art Gallery of NSW bought six items from Kapoor, including the Ardhanarishvara sculpture for A$300,000 in 2004, as well as others that lack an ownership history.
— BERNAMA
