US museum to return three bronze sculptures illegally taken from Tamil Nadu temples

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art has announced it will return three bronze sculptures to India after determining that they were illegally removed from temple sites in Tamil Nadu.

The decision follows detailed provenance research conducted as part of a systematic review of the museum’s South Asian collection.

The sculptures include a 10th-century Chola-period Shiva Nataraja, a 12th-century Chola-period Somaskanda, and a 16th-century Vijayanagar-period sculpture of Saint Sundarar with Paravai.

All three were originally sacred idols used in temple processions.

According to the museum, researchers scrutinised transaction histories and collaborated with the Photo Archives of the French Institute of Pondicherry. In 2023, archival photographs confirmed that the sculptures were present in Tamil Nadu temples between 1956 and 1959. The Archaeological Survey of India later reviewed the findings and confirmed that the objects had been removed in violation of Indian law.

The Shiva Nataraja was traced to the Sri Bhava Aushadesvara Temple in Thiruthuraipoondi taluk of Thanjavur district and was photographed there in 1957. It was acquired by the museum in 2002 from the Doris Wiener Gallery in New York, which museum researchers found had provided falsified documentation. The other two sculptures entered the museum’s collection in 1987 as part of a gift from Arthur M Sackler and were identified in temples in Mannargudi and Kallakurichi taluks.

Museum director Chase F Robinson said the return reflects a commitment to ethical museum practices and transparency. The Ministry of Culture has agreed to place the Shiva Nataraja on long-term loan with the museum to allow it to present the full history of the object’s origins, removal, and return.