Thursday, 10/2/2014
A 1,000-year-old statue on display at the Toledo Museum of Art for almost a decade will be returned to the Government of India, the museum announced today.
The sculpture, a bronze statue of the Hindu deity Ganesh, known as the Ganesha, has been the source of an ongoing investigation, after the U.S. Justice Department contacted museum officials regarding the statue’s history and documentation.
The museum purchased the Ganesha for $245,000 in 2006 from Subhash Kapoor, a second-generation antiques dealer, who is currently facing trial in India on charges of illegal exportation, conspiracy, and forgery. Between 2001 and 2010, the museum purchased seven other pieces from Mr. Kapoor’s Art of the Past gallery in New York City. Mr. Kapoor also gave 56 small terracotta idols to the museum.
While all of the items have been removed from public view, the Museum’s Art Committee voted in late August to return the Ganesha, after deciding the statue closely resembles a figure listed as stolen in an Indian police report.
“The evidence provided by Indian authorities was convincing. We believe the sculpture was stolen from a temple sometime before 2006,” Brian Kennedy, director of TMA said. “Any item that turns out to be stolen will be returned. That’s our policy.”
Bronze statue on display at Toledo Museum of Art being returned to Government of India - Toledo Blade
