Stolen idols traced to US museum

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Idol Wing CID has traced two idols stolen from the State to a museum in the US and submitted documents seeking their return to the country, police said on Wednesday.

The two antique idols of Yoganarasimha and Ganesha belonging to Sri Venugopala Swamy temple, Alathur, Thiruvarur district, were traced to the Nelson-Atkins Museums, Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

They were stolen from the temple about 50 years ago and replaced with fake images, the Idol Wing claimed. "Based on the findings of our investigation, we have submitted papers proving our ownership of the idols to the government for onward transmission to the USA for repatriation of the same to Tamil Nadu," Idol Wing DGP K Jayanth Murali said.

The Idol Wing hopes to retrieve the idols and restore them to the Venugopala Swamy temple under the UNESCO treaty soon. Murali and Idol Wing IGP R Dhinakaran thanked heritage enthusiast Vijay Kumar for initial inputs and appreciated ADSP Balamurugan, DSP Chandrasekaran and his team for taking expeditious steps in preparing the documents for retrieving the stolen idols.