Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University has announced its plans to return a 500-year-old sculpture of the Hindu saint Tirumankai Alvar to India.
The bronze statue was believed to have been looted from an Indian temple. The 60-cm tall Hindu saint sculpture from the 16th century has been displayed at Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum.
Vijay Kumar, co-founder of India Pride Project, which aims to recover stolen sacred artifacts, said worshippers have something to rejoice over.
On Sunday, June 9, Kumar told the Times of India that they witnessed COVID delays and procedural drama between British and Indian authorities on what should have been an open and shut case. He added that they have been voicing their opinions on social media and are almost there.
The scheduled return comes with an effort to retrieve invaluable artifacts that were either stolen or obtained through questionable ways during the height of the British Empire by Indigenous Australians and governments from Nigeria, Egypt, and Greece.
Oxford decided to return nearly 100 Benin bronzes to the Nigerian government, looted in 1897 when British soldiers attacked and took control of Benin City because Britain increased its political and commercial power in West Africa.
The Charity Commission, an England and Wales regulatory authority determining whether returning art compromises an organization's charitable goal, has delayed the return of those artifacts. The Indian bronze will also need the commission's approval.
Furthermore, the Ashmolean said it reached out to the Indian High Commission in 2019 after the bronze was discovered in a temple in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu in 1957.
According to a statement from the museum, the university council approved the item's return in March. The museum also claimed it purchased the statue at Sotheby's in 1967. It said it had no idea how Dr. J.R. Belmont, a collector, had obtained it.
