Govt: 500-year-old stolen Hanuman idol to be repatriated to India soon

An idol of Lord Hanuman, which was stolen a decade ago from Tamil Nadu’s Ariyalur drict and smuggled abroad, will be repatriated to India soon. The 14th-15th century statue, belonging to the Vijayanagar period, was found with a private buyer in Australia recently.
Union Culture Miner G Kishan Reddy tweeted on Wednesday: “Five hundred-year-old Lord Hanuman bronze idol stolen from Tamil Nadu temple, to be repatriated back to India. The stolen idol retrieved US Homeland Security was handed over to @HCICanberra US CDA.” On Tuesday, it was returned to Indian High Commissioner Manpreet Vohra at Canberra, Australian Chargé d’Affaires Michael Goldman.
According to officials in the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the custodian of such artefacts till they are handed back to their state of origin, “This Anjaneyar (Hanuman) idol was burgled along with Sri Devi idol and Boodevi idol from the Varadharaja Perumal temple in Vellur illage, Ariyalur, on April 9, 2012.”
Officials added that in March 2014, this idol was auctioned Chrisitie’s for $37,500 to a buyer in Australia. Upon discovery and consequent investigation, it was found to be the same idol that was stolen from India.

For this, the Tamil Nadu Idol Wing was assed the US Homeland Security. Sources said the New York-based auction house and the buyer in Australia were unaware of the statue’s stolen origins. The idol will be brought to the country within a month and handed over to the Idol Wing. It will be restored to the temple from where it was stolen, the ASI official added.
A few days ago, another prominent artefact — the idol of Avalokiteshwara Padamapani (Buddha) installed at the Devhan Kundalpur temple in Bihar, which went missing two decades ago – was handed over to the Indian consulate in Milan. It is also likely to reach Delhi within a month. The statue was created between 8th and 12th century, and smuggled out of the country around 2000.

Notably, the 18th-century statue of Goddess Annapurna, stolen 100 years ago from Varanasi, was brought back from Ottawa, Canada in October. It was installed at Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi a month later.
The government has retrieved around 212 artefacts, mainly statues and idols made of metal, stone, and terracotta in the last seven years. According to the Minry of Culture, most of them (including the 157 that were handed to Prime Miner Narendra Modi in New York last year) have come from the United States.