CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Police's Idol Wing has traced a 19th century Sarfoji painting in the custody of the Homeland Security of the US.
The painting, which depicts King Serfoji II of the Bhonsle dynasty with his son Shivaji II, went missing from the Saraswathi Mahal Library in Thanjavur before 2017. Efforts were being made to trace and bring the painting back to Thanjavur, police said.
As per the Idol Wing, the painting was purchased by the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Massachusetts from Manhattan-based antique dealer Subhash Kapoor in 2006 and was handed over to the Homeland Security after it found that the painting was a stolen one. Kapoor was arrested in 2011 for smuggling antiques out of India and is currently in prison.
In October 2017, a missing complaint was filed by E Rajendran, a staff of the Saraswathi Mahal Library. The exact date of theft, however, could not be ascertained. When the investigating team searched online, they found a picture of the painting on the website of a foreign museum.
The investigation further revealed that the 19th-century painting was purchased by PEM from Kapoor in 2006 for USD 35,000. Kapoor and girlfriend Selina Mohamed engaged in a decades-long conspiracy to sell stolen artefacts by creating false ownership histories.
They used the name of Leo Figiel, a collector of Indian art who died in 2013. Figiel provided Kapoor with a false letter claiming he acquired the artefacts from a "European collection" in 1969.
PEM, upon knowing that the painting was a stolen piece, handed over the Serfoji painting to the Department of Homeland Security as part of the government's ongoing investigation into an alleged international art fraud enterprise.
The Idol Wing said efforts were being made to bring the painting back to TN under the UNESCO treaty soon.
History of the painting
In 1786, when Raja Tulaja of Thanjavur died, his adopted son Serfoji was young. So, his other son Amar Singh, whom Raja Tulaja had through his concubine, was appointed Raja. However, by 1798, the Brtish controlled most of the Indian power structures. So the British decided to place Serfoji as the king.
Serfoji learned several languages and enlarged the Saraswati Mahal Library at Thanjavur, which even today has 40,000 rare manuscripts and paintings. Serfoji was one of the last of the Bhonsle Rajas of Thanjavur. For a long time, the rulers of Thanjavur had been devoid of absolute power. Serfoji died in 1832.
His only son Shivaji ruled until 1855. However, he had no male successors. Thanjavur became a casualty of Lord Dalhousie's infamous 'Doctrine of Lapse', and it got absorbed into British-ruled Indian provinces.
The painting, which has Raja Serfoji and his youthful son, according to some historians, was probably painted between 1822 and 1827 and kept in the Saraswathi Mahal. In 1918, the Saraswathi Mahal Library was opened to the public.