BHOPAL: The issue of repatriating idols, sculptures and antiquities stolen or smuggled abroad will be an important part of the deliberations at the four-day Third BRICS Culture Working Group Meeting and BRICS Culture Ministers Meeting, which began in Madhya Pradesh's capital, Bhopal, on Wednesday.
According to Vivek Agrawal, a senior Madhya Pradesh-cadre IAS officer and Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Culture, India has successfully repatriated 650 stolen idols, sculptures and cultural artefacts from various countries since 2014. Before 2014, only 13 such objects had been repatriated.
The recent repatriations include rare stone and bronze sculptures of Hindu and Buddhist deities from the United States.
Australia has also agreed to repatriate three 11th and 12th century antiquities stolen from temples in Tamil Nadu that are currently housed at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. The return of the Bhadrakali Trident, Granite Nandi idol and the six-headed Skand-Kartikheya idol was announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Australia.
“Repatriation of idols, sculptures and other antiquities stolen or smuggled to other countries will be an important issue which will be discussed during the August 5-6 BRICS Culture Working Group meeting and subsequently at the BRICS Culture Ministers meeting on August 7-8, where the official declaration from this final meeting will be decided and released by ten out of the 11 full member countries in the BRICS organisation, who are part of the four day long deliberations in Bhopal,” Agrawal said.
Barring Saudi Arabia, ministers, deputy ministers and delegates from the other 10 BRICS member nations will attend the deliberations in Bhopal.
Repatriation of Dhar Bhojshala's Vagdevi idol
On May 15, 2026, the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Indore, while holding that the centuries-old Bhojshala-Kamal Maula Mosque complex in western Madhya Pradesh's Dhar town was a Saraswati temple, directed the central government to make efforts to bring back the idol of Goddess Vagdevi (Saraswati) from the British Museum in London. However, the central government had begun work on the matter at least 11 months earlier.
“Immediately after I took over as the secretary of the union culture ministry, the Madhya Pradesh government had written to us for repatriation of the Goddess Vagdevi idol housed in the British Museum in London. Since then, we have been working on a continuous basis through diplomatic channels as well as at the Museum level for the important repatriation of the historic idol. Multiple written communications have already been made, particularly via diplomatic channels in the United Kingdom to bring back the idol to Dhar,” Agrawal maintained.
The 11th century marble idol of Goddess Vagdevi (Saraswati) was excavated from the ruins of Dhar's Bhojshala complex in 1875 by British political agent Major General William Kincaid. It was subsequently taken to the United Kingdom in 1886 and formally added to the British Museum's collection in 1909.
Other issues to be discussed at the four-day BRICS culture meeting
Besides the repatriation of stolen or smuggled idols, sculptures and artefacts, the four-day event will also deliberate on building a common database or directory of artists and creative groups to facilitate art exchange programmes among BRICS member nations.
The discussions will also cover manuscripts and archaeological documentation, as well as multinational nominations, which allow multiple countries to jointly submit shared cultural or natural properties and living traditions to UNESCO.