500-year-old bronze statue stolen from Tamil Nadu temple will be returned to India, Oxford University announced

The prestigious Oxford University of Britain has agreed to return to India a 500-year-old bronze statue of a saint stolen from a temple in Tamil Nadu.

A statement issued by the University's Ashmolean Museum said that on March 11, 2024, the Council of Oxford University supported the claim of the Indian High Commission to return the 16th-century bronze statue of Saint Tirumankai Alvar from the Ashmolean Museum. This decision will now be sent to the Charity Commission for approval.

The Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford acquired the 60-cm-high statue of Saint Tirumankai Alvar from Sotheby's auction house in 1967, from the collection of Dr. J.R. Belmont (1886-1981).

The museum claims it informed the Indian High Commission after an independent researcher alerted it to the ancient statue's origins in November last year.

The Indian government made a formal request for the bronze statue, which is thought to have been stolen from a temple in Tamil Nadu and ended up in a UK museum after an auction.

The museum, which houses some of the world's most famous art and archeological artifacts, says it acquired the statue in 1967 in "good faith".

There have been several instances of Indian artifacts stolen from the UK being restored to India, the most recent being in August last year, when a limestone carved statue from Andhra Pradesh and a 17th-century “Navaneet Krishna” bronze statue from Tamil Nadu were handed over to the Indian High Commissioner in the UK following a joint investigation by Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiquities Unit.