Chennai: The ancient bronze idol of saint Manickavasagar and Lord Ganesh looted by Subash Kapoor along with idols of Lord Nataraja and Uma Parameshwari from a temple in Sripurandhan in Ariyalur are among the 200 idols and artefacts returned by United States to India on Tuesday during Prime Minister’s Narednra Modi’s visit to Washington.
The returned articles are worth an estimated Rs 676 crore ($100 million). “Of the eight idols stolen from the Tamil Nadu temple, two – Nataraja and Uma Parameshawri - are already back. Now the US had returned two more,” an idol wing officer told this newspaper on Tuesday.
The Manickvasagar idol, valued around Rs 6.7 crore ($1 million), was a with a private collector in the US, who had purchased the same from Subash Kapoor, the international idol smuggler, who is now lodged in prison here.
Two years ago, the private collector had voluntarily surrendered the idol that he bought from a dealer in the Kapoor network. Subash Kapoor, who was running the ‘Art of the Past’ gallery in Manhattan, New York, was extradited to India in 2012 after he was arrested in Germany in 2011.
