Another idol stolen from Tamil Nadu temple recovered

Chennai, Aug 20

The idol wing of the Tamil Nadu police has traced an idol stolen from the Thandanthottam temple to the Christie's Auction house in the US. The idol, according to the police, is that of Sambandar.

The idol, according to officials, is estimated to be around Rs 1 crore.

It is to be noted that the police's idol wing had traced another idol of Goddess Parvati to Bonham's auction house in the US, 10 days ago.

According to the idol wing police, five idols -- Sambandar, Krishna Kalinga - narthanam, Parvati, Ayyanar, and Agasthyar were stolen from Nadanapureshwarar Sivan temple, Thandanthottam village in Kumbakonam Taluk of Tanjavur district in Tamil Nadu in May 1971.

The idol wing in a statement said that K.N. Vasu (67), president of the welfare association of the temple, had filed a complaint with the idol wing police in 2019 based on which the idol wing registered a case under Sections 457 (2), 380 (2), 120-B of IPC and 25 (1) Section of AAT Act, 1972.

While the complaint was registered on February 14, 2019, there was no progress in investigation.

Police said that there was no image of the Sambandar idol either with the complainant or with the temple authorities and hence had to depend on the Indo-French Institute, Puducherry which is a repository of Tamil Nadu's cultural treasures and with the image available traced through the websites of various auction houses abroad.

The idol wing police could make headway after when the photograph of Sambandar Idol was found on display at the website of Christie's Auction House.

Archeological and forensic experts were consulted with the photograph of the Sambandar idol from Indo-French Institute and at Christie's and the experts confirmed that the idol in both the images was the same.

The idol wing police have requested the auction house for the repatriation of the antique bronze metal idol stolen from Nadanapureeshwar Sivan temple, Kumbakonam under the legal agreement binding between the two countries.