Two more TN antique idols traced to USA

CHENNAI: The idol wing CID has traced two antique idols of Yoganarasimha and Ganesha belonging to Venugopala Swamy Temple, Alathur Thiruvarur District, to Nelson-Atkins Museums, Kansas City, Missouri, the USA. The two idols were allegedly stolen from the temple, about 5 decades back and replaced with fake modern replicas, a note from Idol wing said on Wednesday.

Idol wing sleuths started the probe based on a complaint from S.Nagarajan, Inspector, HR & CE, Mannargudi, in February 2017 about three missing idols Of Vishnu, Sridevi and Bhudevi belonging to Venugopala Swamy Temple, Alathur which were kept in the Alathur Viswanatha Swamy Temple for safe custody.

Based on his complaint, a case was registered in Vikrapandiyam PS in Thiruvarur.

During the investigation of the above-mentioned case the antique of Vishnu, Sridevi and Bhoodevi idols belonging to Venugopala Swamy Temple, Alathur were traced to an art gallery "LACMA" Museum, Los Angeles, USA.

At this point of time Inspector Nagarajan who had handed over the custody of the remaining idols of Alathur, Viswanatha Swamy Temple to Thiruvarur Icon Centre for the sake of security developed a suspicion regarding the status of the remaining six idols lying in the Icon Center. Wanting to ascertain whether the remaining idols were original or fake replicas like the three idols which had been traced to the USA, he requested the Idol wing to investigate it.

The idols in question were :

1.Yoganarasimha,

2.Ganesha,

3.Dancing Krishna

4.Dancing Sambanthar,

5.Somaskandar,

6.Standing Vishnu.

No images of the original idols were available with the temple authorities nor in other records. The idol wing decided to check if any photographs or documents were available with IFP (French Institute of Pondicherry). Luckily, during the check, the pictures of the idols above were available with the IFP.

"After obtaining the pictures, we started looking for idols resembling the images with us on the websites of various museums worldwide. During the search, we came across some photo images of the idols resembling Yoganarasimha and Ganesha belonging to Venugopala Swamy Temple, displayed in the galleries of the Nelson-Atkins Museums, Kansas City, Missouri, USA. We requested the experts to study the images downloaded from the museum website with the images obtained from the Indo -French Institute, Pondicherry.

The experts after a thorough study opined that photo images of antique Yoganarasimha, and Ganesha and idols taken by IFP, Pondicherry and the two images downloaded from the Nelson-Atkins Museums website were the same" said the press release from Idol wing.

The details regarding the investigation into the status of other idols - Dancing Krishna, Dancing Sambandhar, Somaskandar and Standing Vishnu - will be shared soon, said the note.

Based on the above findings of our investigation, we have prepared and submitted papers proving our ownership of the idols to the government for onward transmission to the USA for repatriation of the same to Tamilnadu. The Idol wing hopes to retrieve the idols and restore them to the Venugopala Swamy Temple, said DGP Jayanth Murali heading the idol wing.