Stolen Almora idol back home after 50 years
The 9th-10th century stone sculpture was recovered from the US in the late 90s by the Archaeological Survey of India's antiquity section. But the idol, which is 52 cm in height and 32 cm in width, has been brought back home only now.
Residents of Almora in Uttrakhand are rejoicing as the idol of Lord Lakulisha, an avatar of Shiva, stolen in the late 1960s from the famous Jageshwar Temple, has returned.
The 9th-10th century stone sculpture was recovered from the US in the late 90s by the Archaeological Survey of India's antiquity section. But the idol, which is 52 cm in height and 32 cm in width, has been brought back home only now.
The stolen idol was part of a cluster of 124 large and small stone temples dating back to 9th to 13th Century in the late 60s. After it was stolen from Almora's Jageshwar temple, which is an ASI-protected monument since 1915, the sculpture reportedly ended up in New York's Metropolitan Museum. The museum agreed to return three sculptures - idols of Lord Lakulisha from Almora, Lord Vishnu from Madhya Pradesh and Lord Buddha from Bihar to India in the late 90s.
While MP and Bihar took custody of their respective idols, the Lord Lakulisha idol was kept in the ASI's custody as the Jageshwar temple was not considered fully safe at that time. Subsequently the idol remained with the ASI all these years.
But now the idol is back to where it rightfully belongs and the local residents are rejoicing. The local staff of the Archaeological Survey of India had recently visited their headquarters in New Delhi to take possession of the rare Lord Lakulisha idol.
The ASI museum in-charge at Jageshwar, Manoj Joshi, said, "We will be displaying the Lord Lakulisha sculpture at our site museum soon. We collected and brought the idol to Jageshwar on October 4."
The sculpture from Almora is one of the antique idols of the central Himalayan region. Joshi said, "There is great curiosity among local residents to view the rare artifact, has returned home after travelling abroad." In 1978, a UNESCO convention established the Intergovernmental Committee for promoting the return of cultural property to its countries of origin or its restitution in case of illicit appropriation. This has helped many nations who have been robbed of their precious artifact by way of stealing to issue repatriation claims.