Rare 9th Century Idol Of Lord Shiva, Stolen From Rajasthan in 1998, Will Return to India After 22 Years

Jaipur : A rare 9th century idol of Natesh Shiva was stolen from Ghateswar temple in Chittorgarh district of Rajasthan in February 1998. That idol was recovered in London. It is now being brought back to India after 22 years. The idol of Shiva will be handed over to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) department today.

Indian officials said that the British authorities were alerted when we came to know in 2003 that the idol had been smuggled to Britain. For this he had a conversation with a private collector in London, who recovered it and took it into his possession and voluntarily returned it to the Indian High Commission in 2005.

Since then this rare statue of Lord Shiva was put on display in India House. In August 2017, a team of ASI experts examined the statue and confirmed that it was the same idol, which was stolen from Ghateswar temple in Baroli village.

Recently recovered items include a 17th-century bronze statue of Navneet Krishna and a second-century limestone pillar returned by the US embassy on 15 August 2019. Also on August 15, 2018, a 12th-century bronze statue of Buddha was handed over by Scotland Yard. The Brahma-Brahmani sculpture, which was stolen from Gujarat, returned to ASI in 2017.