India's Police Called in Over the Case of Australian Gallery's Stolen Statue

THE AUSTRALIAN
By Michaela Boland

A visitor this week to the Art Gallery of NSW gazes at the statue of Ardhanarishvara

AUSTRALIA---A fortnight after a valuable statue owned by the Art Gallery of NSW was found to have been stolen from a temple in southern India, the case has been referred to police investigators there. The so-called Idol Wing of the police department in Tamil Nadu, southern India, has been furnished with a photograph taken in 1974 of the Ardhanarishvara, which remains on display in the Sydney art museum's upper Asian gallery. The 1000-year-old stone carving of Shiva, with the bull Nandi, was stolen from the Vriddhachalam temple about 200km south of Tamil Nadu's capital Chennai some time after 1974 when it was photographed at the temple. Subhash Kapoor was arrested in Germany on an Interpol warrant in 2011 and extradited to southern India a year ago. Kapoor operated from a Manhattan shop but is alleged to have worked with thieves in southern India and elsewhere. [link]