India repatriates historic temple bronzes from US, Gajendra Shekhawat calls it milestone in fight against illicit trafficking
Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Wednesday said that India has successfully repatriated Chola-period and other significant bronze artefacts from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in the United States.
The identified antiquities include:
-Saint Sundarar with Paravai sculpture (16th century, Vijayanagara period): photographed in 1956 at the Shiva Temple in Veerasolapuram village, Tamil Nadu.
-Somaskanda (Shiva and Uma) (12th century, Chola period): photographed in 1959 at the Visvanatha Temple in Alattur village, Tamil Nadu.
-Shiva Nataraja (Chola period, circa 990 CE): originally belonging to the Sri Bhava Aushadesvara Temple in Thanjavur district and photographed there in 1957.
The Somaskanda and Saint Sundarar with Paravai bronzes arrived in New Delhi on 12 May, while the Shiva Nataraja will be repatriated after its scheduled display in the exhibition “The Art of Knowing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas.”
As a goodwill gesture and in support of responsible museum engagement, the Government of India has agreed to a three-year loan arrangement for the Shiva Nataraja sculpture from 2025 to 2028, allowing global audiences to understand its complete historical journey from origin to repatriation.
Addressing a press conference at the National Museum in Janpath, New Delhi, the Shekhawat described the repatriation as a significant milestone in India’s ongoing efforts to bring back stolen cultural treasures and strengthen ethical museum practices globally. He said antiquities are not merely artistic objects but embodiments of India’s spiritual traditions, historical continuity, and civilisational memory, adding that illicit trafficking over the decades had deprived the country of several invaluable cultural assets.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), through extensive provenance research using archival records, field documentation and historical temple photographs from the 1950s and 1960s, traced the artefacts to their original temple sites in Tamil Nadu. These had been illicitly removed from India and later housed abroad. The findings formed the basis for coordinated negotiations involving the Ministry of Culture, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Embassy of India in the United States.
The minister also informed that since 2014, India has successfully repatriated 666 antiquities from various countries, including 653 since 2014 alone, through sustained diplomatic, legal and institutional efforts led by the Ministry of Culture, the ASI, Indian missions abroad and enforcement agencies.
He further noted that recently, 657 art objects of Indian origin were handed over by US law enforcement agencies to the Indian Embassy in Washington, with arrangements underway for their transportation and verification by ASI experts.
The press interaction was attended by Secretary, Ministry of Culture Vivek Aggarwal, along with senior officials from the National Museum, the Archaeological Survey of India and other dignitaries.
