CHENNAI: A Nataraja idol stolen 62 years ago from the 2,000-year-old Vedapureeswarar temple in Thanjavur has been traced to a museum in the USA by the idol wing police. According to a complaint from S Venkatachalam from Kandiyur village in Thanjavur, the idol was stolen from the temple administered by the HR&CE department and replaced with a fake one.
According to his complaint, his father had approached the Naducauvery Police Station 35 years ago asking the police to help trace the idol but the complaint was not registered. The complainant claimed that he wanted to fulfil his father’s dream of retrieving the stolen idol.
The idol wing-CID took up the investigation after assessing that the complaint was genuine. “The idol of Nataraja that devotees were worshipping at the temple was fake. The investigating team sought original photographs from the Indo-French Institute in Puducherry. After receiving the original idol’s picture, the team launched a worldwide search on the websites of various museums, brochures of artefact collectors and auction houses,” said an official release.
After an extensive search, the team stumbled on what looked like an original idol at the Asia society museum in New York. “After a careful comparison, an expert concluded and issued a certificate that the idol in the US museum was the same as the image obtained from the institute,” the release said and added that expeditious action is under way to retrieve the idol of Nataraja under the UNESCO agreement.
An investigation is also underway to see if any other idols had been stolen from the temple.
Expeditious action under way
After a careful comparison, an expert concluded and issued a certificate that the idol in the US museum was the same as the image obtained from the Pondy institute