Museum has not got response since July of 2013.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: It seems the Indian government doesn’t care, are in no hurry to reclaim it or perhaps do not want back invaluable stolen ancient artifacts, including an idol of Lord Ganesha, which are now in possession of The Toledo Museum of Art (TMA). The museum has conscientiously done the right thing by contacting the Indian Consulate in New York and the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC, but has yet to get any response.
TMA is now cooperating with an investigation by the US Justice Department into at least eight pieces of Indian art it currently has, including the Ganesha idol, that may have been stolen properties sold to the museum by infamous art dealer Subhash Kapoor, who operated from New York, and is now incarcerated and awaiting trial in Chennai, India.
In a statement on the museum’s website, TMA acknowledged that the artifacts in question may, in fact, be stolen property, saying that they first became aware of the status of the items in question on July 18 of last year. The items had been purchased from Kapoor between 2001 and 2010; last year, it was revealed that they potentially belong to a small village in Tamil Nadu called Sripuranthan, which has reported around 18 items missing that it lays claim to.
Reports indicate that the Ganesha, which was purchased in 2006, cost $245,000 and was likely stolen from the Sivan temple in Ariyalur, located in central Tamil Nadu.
Kelly Fritz Garrow, the Director of Communications at TMA, in an interview to The American Bazaar, spoke of the museum’s efforts to authenticate the Ganesha’s history and what it’s doing to make sure that everything ends up back where it belongs. The museum is now working with the US Justice Department to authenticate the artifacts.
“The process is that the Justice Department is conducting an investigation [through] its Southern District, which has jurisdiction to head up the investigation here in the US,” explained Garrow. “[The Justice Department] contacted us for all documentation on items that we purchased from [Kapoor], which we have provided, but I have no idea how long their investigation will take because it’s pretty massive.”
Garrow further explained that, when they’re ready, the Justice Department, along with someone from “Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” will present their entire case to the TMA, at which point it will be decided whether or not the Ganesha and the other items purchased from Kapoor will have to go back to India.
“Depending on what that evidence is, if it’s compelling and clear that we don’t have ownership of [the items] because they were stolen, then we will give them back,” said Garrow. “There will be what’s called a stipulation agreement, which states that we are relinquishing the rights to the objects and will hand it over to immigration, who will then see that it gets back to India.”
Garrow clarified that the Ganesha and other items, which include terra cotta idols and other such works of art, are all currently in the possession of TMA and are on display for patrons to view. When asked if the museum was ever in direct contact with the Indian government regarding the ownership history and authenticity of the pieces, Garrow said that attempts were made by the museum, but were never returned by the Indian authorities.
“We have had no contact from the Indian side,” said Garrow. “We wrote to the Indian Consulate in New York on July 13 of last year, when we first found out that there may be an issue, but we received no response to that. We wrote another letter recently [to the Embassy], when we put out the information about the items we bought from Kapoor, but once the US government got involved with us, we’ve worked directly with them. We hoped to work directly with the Indian government, but that didn’t happen, so the Justice Department is our primary contact.”
Calls to M Sridharan – Counsellor, Press, Information and Culture, at The Indian Embassy in Washington, DC – for a response on the issue, regarding what steps the Indian government has taken to get back the Ganesha idol and other items, were not returned.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com
[This story was updated on 3/19/14, with clarification that the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC was contacted, as well.]