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The British police on Tuesday handed over to India ancient idols of Lord Ram, Lakshman and Sita that had been stolen from Tamil Nadu in 1978, as a part of rising efforts to return artefacts of India’s cultural heritage from the world over.
The handover ceremony at India House was attended by officers of the Metropolitan Police and remotely by Union minister for tradition and tourism Prahlad Singh Patel from New Delhi, in addition to officers in Chennai.
The idols, being despatched again to Tamil Nadu, had been stolen from a temple constructed within the Vijayanagar interval within the Nagapattinam district. They had been voluntarily handed over to the police by an unidentified UK-based collector when knowledgeable that they had been stolen property. Information from S Vijay Kumar of the India Pride Project helped hint and determine the idols, officers mentioned.
Patel mentioned that solely 13 vintage gadgets had been returned to India between 1947 and 2014, however after that, greater than 40 such antiquities have returned residence. “Efforts are also on to return one idol from the British Museum”.
Indian excessive commissioner Gaitri Kumar known as it an “auspicious day” and thanked the police for his or her efforts to get well the idols.
She recalled current cases when idols stolen from India had been recovered and repatriated to India by the mission.
Detective chief inspector of the Metropolitan Police Tim Wright mentioned: “The Metropolitan Police are proud to have been involved in the return of these Chola bronzes to India. Not only are they beautiful and historically significant, they are of course of religious importance, and therefore it is particularly gratifying that they are to be returned to the temple from which they were taken”.
Indian officers mentioned renewed impetus lately to the safety of India’s cultural heritage has led to coordinated motion by numerous companies, together with the ministry of exterior affairs, Archaeological Survey of India and regulation enforcement companies such because the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence.
Successful restitutions have taken place lately from numerous nations together with Germany, France, Australia and the US, whereas work is ongoing on extra such gadgets. The excessive fee in London has up to now repatriated the next idols:
> The Bramha- Brahmani sculpture, stolen from the world heritage website Rani-Ki Vav, was returned to the Archaeological Survey of Inida in 2017. It has discovered a outstanding place within the Purana Quila museum in Delhi.
> On August 15, 2018 a 12th century bronze statue of Gautam Buddha was restituted to the excessive fee by the Metropolitan Police.
> On August 15, 2019, two antiques – a 17th century bronze idol of Navanitha Krishna and a 2nd century limestone carved pillar motif had been returned to the excessive fee by the US embassy in London.
> On July 29, 2020, the Natesha Shiva statue stolen in 1998 from the Ghateshwar temple in Baroli, Rajasthan was repatriated to the ASI.
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