NEW DELHI, May 13: Two significant Indian temple bronze artefacts, including a Chola period antiquity, have been repatriated to the country from the Smithsonian Institution in the US, Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat announced here on Wednesday.
At a press conference held at the National Museum, he said India has secured the ownership of another Chola bronze artefact — Shiva Nataraja, which belonged to Sri Bhava Aushadesvara Temple in Tamil Nadu’s Tanjavur district — after rigorous research and documentation to prove its provenance. It will be repatriated to India later after its display at an exhibition in the US.
“The two bronzes — Saint Sundarar with Paravai of the 16th-century Vijaynagara period and Somaskanda (Shiva and Uma) of the 12th-century Chola period — were brought home late on Tuesday night from the US. This takes the total number of antiquities repatriated to India from various countries so far to 668, including 653 since 2014,” Shekhawat told reporters.
The two bronze artefacts, along with 11 other antiquities recently repatriated from Australia and received through the Indian High Commission there, were displayed at the foyer of the National Museum facing its auditorium.
In a statement, the culture ministry said the three “sacred temple bronzes, originally from Tamil Nadu, had been illicitly removed from India in the mid-20th century, and subsequently housed abroad”.
Shekhawat described the repatriation of the historic bronzes from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art as a “significant milestone” in India’s ongoing efforts to bring back stolen cultural treasures and strengthen ethical museum practices globally.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), through extensive provenance research using archival records, field documentation and historical temple photographs from the 1950s and 1960s, successfully traced the artefacts to their original temple sites in Tamil Nadu, the ministry said.
The findings formed the basis for coordinated negotiations involving the Ministry of Culture, the Smithsonian Institution and the Indian Embassy in the US, it said.
Before his interaction with mediapersons, Shekhawat was given a tour of the repatriated items by museum officials. Union Culture Secretary Vivek Aggarwal and ASI Director General Yadubir Singh Rawat were also present.
“Besides these 668 antiquities that have been repatriated, 657 art objects of Indian origin were recently handed over by the US law enforcement agencies to the Indian Embassy in the US. An approval has been granted to our embassy in the US for their packaging, handling and transportation. These objects are expected to be received in India in the near future,” the minister said.
Shekhawat termed the latest repatriation as a “formidable example” of how the Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cares for the return of Indian heritage taken abroad by legal or illegal means. He asserted that the last decade or so marks a “golden era” in India’s campaign for cultural repatriation.
The minister said the Chola bronze ‘Shiva Nataraja’ has been “loaned for a period of three years” to the Smithsonian Institution and, after its display at an exhibition — The Art of Knowing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas — will be returned to India.
The National Museum of Asian Art under the Smithsonian Institution is located in Washington, DC.
The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education and research complex, with 21 museums, 14 education and research centres and the National Zoo, shaping the future by preserving heritage, discovering new knowledge and sharing its resources with the world, according to its website.
The Smithsonian Institution had announced in January that it would return these three bronzes, the culture minister said.
He said a sustained, evidence-driven engagement led to acceptance of the provenance claims and paved the way for the repatriation of the artefacts.
Asked where the old photographs of the 1950s were sourced from, he said a research centre in Puducherry — French Institute of Pondicherry — had them.
“As a goodwill gesture and in support of responsible museum engagement, the Government of India has agreed to a three-year loan arrangement for the ‘Shiva Nataraja’ sculpture from 2025 to 2028, allowing audiences worldwide to understand its complete historical journey from origin to repatriation,” the ministry said.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, in its report tabled in Parliament in March 2025, had suggested establishing a Heritage Recovery Task Force comprising diplomats, legal experts, archaeologists and art historians to strengthen India’s campaign for cultural repatriation.
Asked if any step has been taken to set up a special task force as recommended by the parliamentary panel, Shekhawat said that the entire country is committed to curbing the smuggling of artefacts and ensuring the return of “our treasures” illegally taken abroad in the past.( PTI)
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