Four years after the Museum was first approached, the Ashmolean in Oxford has agreed to support a formal claim from the Indian High Commission to return a looted bronze statue depicting the Hindu deity Tirumankai Alvar.

Purchased by the Museum at auction in 1967, suspicions over how this 60cm-tall bronze statue left India were raised in November 2019 by an independent scholar who was researching in the photo archives of the IFP-EFEO (Institut Français de Pondichery and the Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient). The statue appeared to match an identical bronze statue of Saint Tirumankai Alvar, which ten years earlier (1957) had been photographed in situ within the temple of Shri Soundarrajaperumal Kovil in Tamil Nadu.

This statue, along with three others, was looted from this temple site in southern India in the late '50s or early '60s. All four statues ended up for sale in the USA. From here, the Ashmolean's statue of Saint Tirumankai Alvar entered the collection of Dr J R Belmont, who amassed a large number of Indian sculptures and miniature paintings. We don't know where or from whom Belmont acquired the sculpture, but it was sold again at auction at Sotheby's in 1967. 

Following its identification in 2019, the Indian High Commissioner submitted a claim to the Ashmolean for its repatriation in March 2020. As part of its research into the provenance of the statue, the Museum agreed a request from the Archaeological Survey of India to undertake a metal analysis of the statue. Although the Ashmolean has provided no further details of this technical analysis, the fact the Museum is now willing to support its repatriation suggests the Museum is satisfied the statue is indeed the one looted from the Tamil Nadu temple site.

Last week the Ashmolean produced a statement saying: ‘On 11 March 2024 the council of the University of Oxford supported a claim from the Indian High Commission for the return of a 16th century bronze sculpture of Saint Tirumankai Alvar from the Ashmolean Museum. This decision will now be submitted to the Charity Commission for approval.’

Oxford University Museums has published its procedures for the return of cultural objects, which were last approved  by the Museums Council in July 2020.

As a charity, the Museum is required to submit the University Council’s support for repatriation to the Charity Commission. Only after the Commission has given approval can the statue be returned to India.

See also Returning Heritage Feb 2020

Photo: A 16^th century bronze statue of Saint Tirumankai Alvar

Courtesy of Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford