Tamil Nadu Police stops Christie's auction of stolen 'Shiva Nataraja' idol
According to media reports, this is the first time an Indian agency has been able to stop the auction of an antique on foreign soil.
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FollowThe Tamil Nadu Police has successfully stopped the scheduled auctioning of a bronze idol of Nataraja by Christie's. The bronze idol, which was about to go under the hammer at a bid price of 2,00,000 to 3,00,000 Euros (Rs 1.76 crore to Rs 2.64 crore), was reportedly stolen half a century ago from the Sri Kothanda Rameshwara Temple at Kayathar in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi district.
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The Idol Wing CID of the Tamil Nadu police came to learn about the auction after Christie's put up an online auction notice. The officers of the special wing came across the notice listing a bronze 'Shiva Nataraja' idol for auction on Friday. They cross-checked the idol listing at the Indo-French Institute (IFP) image library in Puducherry. Experts concluded that the Nataraja idol put up for auction by Christie's was indeed the same artefact stolen from the Thoothukudi district.
On Tuesday, Director General of Police K Jayanth Murali tagged the Archeological Survey of India and 'Antiquities Coalition', which runs an international campaign against cultural racketeering, in a Twitter post seeking an immediate halt of the auction. 'STOP AUCTION, Return it to us. This is stolen from India, TN,' Murali wrote.
According to sources, the state government was notified about the auction, following which the information was passed on to the Union Home Ministry. Thereafter, the Indian Embassy in France notified the French authorities about the 15th-16th century bronze idol belonging to the Vijayanagara period.
Indian Ambassador in France later informed the officer that the auction house had withdrawn the statue from the list. The Idol Wing officials are now preparing to get the idol back from France. According to a department official, that process could take up to three months.
According to media reports, this is the first time an Indian agency has been able to stop the auction of an antique on foreign soil.
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