Natrajar idol, stolen 62 years ago, traced to New York museum

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Police’s idol wing on Monday said that they have traced a Natarajar idol, stolen 62 years ago from the 2,000-year-old Vedapureeswarar Temple in Tiruvedhikudi Kandiyur in Tanjore district to the Asia Society Museum in New York.

According to police, S Venkatachalam (60) of Kandiyur village in Thanjavur district approached the Idol Wing on seeing news about retrieving stolen idols.

According to his complaint, his father had approached the Naducauvery police station 35 years ago asking police help to trace the idol, but the complaint was not registered.

The complainant claimed that he wanted to fulfill his father’s dream of retrieving the stolen idol.

Idol Wing-CID took up the investigation after assessing that the complaint was genuine.

“The idol of Natarajar that devotees were worshipping at the temple was fake. The investigating team sought original photographic images from the Indo-French Institute Pondicherry. After receiving the original idol's picture, the team launched a worldwide search on the websites of various museums, brochures of artefact collectors and auction houses,” said an official release.

After an extensive search, the team stumbled on what looked like an original idol at the Asia society museum in New York.

“After a careful comparison, an expert concluded and issued a certificate that the idol in the Museum was the same as the image obtained from the institute,” the release said and added that expeditious action is underway to retrieve the idol of Natarajar under the UNESCO agreement and restore the temple.

An investigation is also under way to see if any other idols had been stolen from the temple.