NEW DELHI: The first consignment of antiquities containing 63 artefacts and idols, which were smuggled out of the country over the decades, reached Delhi on Tuesday from the United States. The returned articles -- most of them are statues made of metal, stone, and terracotta -- were handed over to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the US in September.
The officials of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) received antiquities at Delhi airport and shifted them to its headquarters late evening.
After feasibility study and assessing security arrangements, the retrieved objects may be given to the authorities to states from where they were stolen, said an official of ASI.
"We have no plan as of now. These artefacts will remain in the custody of the ASI until any decision is taken. We have an arrangement to store antiquities at Purana Quila," said the official.
The items being returned to India largely belong to 11 CE to 14 CE. The copper anthropomorphic object is from 2000 BC and one of the terracotta articles dates to 2 CE. Nearly 45 antiquities belong to the Before Common Era.
An 18th-century idol of Goddess Annapurna was brought back last month. The deity was stolen and taken out of the country around 100 years ago from Varanasi.
The culture minister G Kishan Reddy has already announced that it will be placed in Kashi Vishwanath Temple on November 16.
"The statue of Goddess Annapurna will be handed over to the representatives of the Uttar Pradesh government during a ceremony to be held at National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) on Thursday. The union minister Reddy and two ministers of state for culture Arjun Ram Meghwal and Meenakshi Lekhi will also be present," said the official.
The idol of Goddess Annapurna retrieved from Ottawa, Canada.
In November last year, PM Modi announced that the idol was being brought back.
According to the culture ministry, since 1976, 55 idols have been returned to India. Nearly 75 per cent of them were retrieved during the tenure of BJP government at the Centre from 2014 to 2021.
Out of the 55 antiquities, 42 were returned after 2014.
The process of ferrying remaining antiquities from the US will be completed before the end of this year, the official added.