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'PM's intervention during foreign tours getting us our stolen artefacts'
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SME Times News Bureau | 01 Dec, 2020
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's interventions are helping India get back
some of its priceless stolen artefacts, says Union Culture Minister
Prahlad Singh Patel. "This could be made possible because Prime Minister
Modi paid attention to these aspects during his foreign tours," Union
Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel told IANS, beaming in the glory of
three bronze idols of Lord Rama, Lakshmana and Goddess Sita, which are
being brought back from Britain after being stolen from Tamil Nadu more
than four decades ago, in 1978.
These idols belong to a temple
built during the Vijayanagara era in Anandamangalam in Nagapattinam
district of Tamil Nadu. As per the investigation carried out by the Idol
wing of Tamil Nadu police, these idols were stolen from the Sri
Rajagopal Vishnu Temple in November of 1978. After four long decades,
these heritages are now being brought back to India and handed over to
the state government.
Patel took a subtle jibe at the previous
governments for not doing enough in this regard. "Rules were always
there. We could always bring back our (stolen) heritages. Point is, how
agencies work and how efficiently foreign ministry takes it up," Patel
told IANS.
Making a clear demarcation between the Modi era and
the pre-Modi era, Patel said, a total of 40 antiquities have so far been
retrieved from abroad and brought back to India since 2014. He added
that number stood at a dismal 13, when it comes to bringing back such
antiquities, before 2014.
In August last year, the India Pride
Project touched base with the Indian High Commission in London to inform
them about statues from Vijayanagara period temples that were smuggled
out, likely to the United Kingdom. After intensive multi-agency efforts
in India and coordination with the Art and Antique Unit of the London
Metropolitan Police, they were finally handed over to the Indian High
Commission there on September 15 this year.
The bronze idols of
Lord Rama, Lakshmana and Goddess Sita, which are now in India and will
soon return to Tamil Nadu, from where it was stolen from in 1978, are
the masterpieces of Indian Metal Art and stylistically, can be dated
back to the 13th century AD.
This year alone, eight such
artefacts are being brought back to the country. The Culture Ministry
said, three antiquities are being brought from Australia and five from
Britain.
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