• A 12th century idol of the Hindu goddess Parvati has been found in New York.
• It was stolen from a Tamil Nadu temple more than 40 years ago.
• The idol is worth $212,575 (£175,914) and was one of five missing from the temple.

According to officials, a statue stolen in 1971 from a temple in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu has been tracked down to New York.

According to the report, the 12th century idol of the Hindu goddess Parvati was discovered in the Bonhams Auction House.

Bonhams is a privately owned worldwide auction company based in London.

According to a senior police officer, the Tamil Nadu police’s Idol Wing has “readied papers” to return the idol.

Over the last several years, India has increased its efforts to recover stolen or smuggled temple statues and other artefacts.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in February that “more than 200 precious idols” had been safely returned to India since 2014.

The UK restored to the Indian government three bronze statues stolen from a Tamil Nadu temple more than 40 years ago in 2020.

A bronze Nataraja statue, depicting the Hindu deity Shiva in dancing form, was one of the most magnificent artefacts retrieved in recent years. The $5.1 million (£4.2 million) monument was more than 900 years old and had been purchased by the National Gallery of Australia in 2008.

The freshly discovered Parvati statue from Tamil Nadu was reported lost from the Nadanapureshwarar Sivan temple in 1971.

An investigation was launched in 2019 when a temple trustee filed a police report. The inquiry was led by the Tamil Nadu police’s Idol Wing, which tracks for lost artefacts.

The idol, which stands around 52cm tall, was one of five missing from the temple.

According to police, this idol is worth $212,575 (£175,914). It depicts the goddess standing and wearing a crown of rings stacked on top of each other.

According to the police description, the motifs on the crown are replicated in the necklaces, armbands, girdle, and outfit, complementing the bronze texture.

“The sculpture is a testament to the technical genius of the artist, epitomizing the confident and time-honoured aesthetic canon of the Chola empire,” the Idol Wing said in a statement. From the 10th through the 13th centuries, the Chola empire governed the final areas of southern India.

Police used the help of an expert to compare an image of the idol to one on display at Bonhams Auction House.

“Therefore, we are entitled to claim ownership of the idol as India is a party to UNESCO’S World Heritage Convention, 1972,” they said.

Bonhams has not yet published a comment.

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