Smuggled antiquities returned to India lying in crates for months at ASI

NEW DELHI: At least 30 priceless stolen and smuggled antiquities, including idols of gods and goddesses, that were brought back to India from countries like Australia, the UK and Canada are lying abandoned in crates at the reception area of the Archeological Survey of India’s headquarters at Dharohar Bhavan, Tilak Marg, for more than six months. Though the exact value of these antiquities is not known, they would be surely worth crores of rupees.
The antiquities which have been brought back to India this year include the stone sculpture of a “goat-headed Yogini” in sitting posture with a rudraksha mala and kamandala in her hands. The 10th-century stone idol had been illegally removed from a temple at Lokhari, in UP’s Banda, in 1980 and was returned to India in January this year. Another antiquity from UP’s Varanasi is “Kali Yantra” from the early 19th century.
Last year, an 18th-century ancient idol of Goddess Annapurna, which was stolen from Varanasi and illegally taken to Canada, was returned to the UP government in November just after a month of being brought back to India.
Lakhs of rupees were spent on transporting these pieces back to India from abroad but instead of placing them at their designated places or the Purana Qila gallery, they are lying in crates in the office premises. One being asked why it was so, ASI director and spokesperson Vasant Swarnkar said that the process of shifting them to their designated places will start soon.
Sources said that the stolen or smuggled artefacts and antiquities brought back to India this year belong to various states, including Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Bengal. These are religious statues, portraits — like an idol of Shiva Bhairava from Rajasthan, an idol of the divine couple Lakshmi and Vishnu (Lakshminarayana) from Rajasthan or UP, an idol of Goddess Durga slaying the buffalo demon from Gujarat, a picture of Varaha rescuing a goddess, an arch of a Jain shrine and several other portraits and artefacts.
A total of 229 antiquities have been brought back to India since 2014 from various countries, including Australia, the UK, Canada, Germany, Singapore, and the US. Last year, 159 antiquities — 157 from the USA and one each from the UK and Canada — were brought back to India, as per information provided by the ministry of culture in the Lok Sabha this year.
Swarnkar said that these antiquities are either returned to the state concerned from where they were stolen or displayed in the gallery of Purana Qila, which was inaugurated in 2019, which holds a treasure trove of antiquities that were either seized while being smuggled out or returned to India by foreign governments.