Two Tiruvarur temple idols that went missing 50 years ago traced to US

CHENNAI: The Idol Wing CID has begun paperwork to retrieve from the US two bronze antique idols stolen from a temple in Tiruvarur 50 years ago. While the idol of Somaskandar is with the Freer Sackler Museum in Washington DC, that of dancing Sambandar was sold by Christie’s, a London-based auction house, to someone in the US for $98,500 (approximately `81.5 lakh). Police hope to obtain details of the buyer from the auction house.

The wing began the investigation based on a complaint lodged by S Nagarajan, inspector, HR&CE, at Vikrapandiyam in Thiruvarur in 2017. He said three antique metal idols belonging to Viswanatha Swamy Temple in Thiruvarur district were stolen and replaced with replicas. No image of the original idols was with temple management, according to a press release.

During investigation, police obtained the original photographs from French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP) and started scouring the web for similar photographs. At long last, they came upon the photograph of Somaskandar idol on the website of Freer Sackler Museum and that of dancing Sambandar idol on Christies.com.

Last week, police sent Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties to the US to bring back the idols under the UNESCO Treaty.