T.N.’s Idol Wing police initiate steps to retrieve two stolen antique artefacts from United States 

The Idol Wing has submitted papers concerning two idols stolen from the Viswanatha Swamy Temple in Tiruvarur district about 50 years ago, and which are now in a museum in Los Angeles, and is hoping to have them repatriated to India

The Idol Wing CID of the Tamil Nadu Police, have submitted papers to retrieve two antique idols that were stolen from a temple in Tiruvarur district 50 years ago, and which were recently traced to the United States of America.

In 2017, a staff member of the Department of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE), Mannargudi, had lodged a complaint with the Vikrapandiyam police station in Tiruvarur district, alleging burglary of three antique metal idols -- of Vishnu, Sridevi and Bhudevi, belonging to the Venugopala Swamy Temple, Alathur, Mannargudi Taluk that had been kept at the Viswanatha Swamy Temple for safe custody.

The Idol Wing, after some sustained investigation, eventually traced all the three idols to a museum in Los Angeles in the USA. The investigation also revealed that the three idols had been replaced with replicas at the time of the theft.

Further, the HR& CE Department, after learning about the modus operandi that had been adopted in the theft of these three idols from Venugopala Swamy Temple, became suspicious about some other idols that they had kept for safe custody at the Viswanatha Swamy temple. They requested the Idol Wing to check if these too, were replicas. The Idol Wing then traced other stolen antique idols: the Standing Vishnu to the Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York, USA and the Dancing Krishna to the website of Christie’s, an auction house. Both idols had been stolen from the temple about 50 years ago and replaced with fake replicas.

Director General of Police of the Idol Wing, K. Jayanth Murali said, “Based on the above findings of our investigation, we prepared a proposal under the Mutual Legal Agreement Treaty (MLAT) proving the Tamil Nadu government’s ownership of the stolen idols for onward transmission to the USA for repatriation of the same to Tamil Nadu. We hope to retrieve the idols and restore them to the Venugopala Swamy Temple, Alathur, under the UNESCO treaty soon from the USA, and have all of them re-consecrated. “