Tamil Nadu Police Idol Wing sets up virtual museum to sell idols as NFTs

The TN Police Idol wing, with IIT-Madras’ help, is setting up a virtual museum. The Idol Wing has taken 3D images of 374 idols. They will be uploaded to www.tnidols.com, in three days, according to the announcement on the website.

The Tamil Nadu Idol Wing, with the help of IIT-Madras has taken steps to set up a virtual museum at www.tnidols.com. As per a report by DT next, the Idol Wing has a total of 374 idols, including 36 metal objects, 265 stone objects and 73 wooden objects. According to the announcement on the website, it is currently under reconstruction and will be live in three days.The idol wing plans to request the Tamil Nadu government, which has the physical ownership of the idols, to sell the digital versions of the idols at the museum, barring idols from temples as NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens).With IIT Madras’ help, using VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) unique cameras, the TN idol wing has taken 3D pictures of the idols. They will be uploaded to the website in three days.According to the DTNext report, the idol wing plans to crowdsource images of all antique idols from volunteers in Tamil Nadu. These images will be uploaded temple-wise, sub-division wise and district-wise.Devotees and lovers of ancient idols and art can access these 3D images from the comfort of their homes.A large number of complaints allege that several idol smugglers have stolen many original antique idols and replaced them with fake idols over the years. After recovering stolen idols, it was impossible to identify whether an idol is antique or non-antique.To solve this, the Idol Wing, in collaboration with IIT Madras, are training algorithms in this direction. Artificial intelligence will also be employed to help to determine which era and regime the idols belong to.“We further wish to propose to the Tamil Nadu government, which has physical ownership of the idols, to sell the digitised versions of the idols of the museum, barring the idols of the temples as NFTs ( Non-Fungible Tokens),” said the Idol Wing as reported by DTNext.This will be a significant factor in generating additional revenue for the TN government while affording art collectors the satisfaction of owning the digitised version of cultural artefacts.

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