Mathura 2016.09.21 (VT): Three stolen antique statues will return to India after a long gap. Australian police have got hold of these statues while raiding at the safe-houses of smugglers. These statues have been handed over to the Central Minister of Culture Dr. Mahesh Sharma who will be bringing them soon to homeland. Out of the three statues, the statue of Buddha was stolen from Mathura.
Statue of Buddha which was stolen from Mathura and smuggled to Australia
Chennai Police arrested international smuggler Subhash Kapoor in the year 2012 when he admitted about the Buddha statue stolen from Mathura. The statue is made up of sandstone and age back to Kushan Kaal (25 BC) and is 130 centimetres tall and 110 centimetres wide.
There is one more statue of Lord Buddha and a statue of Goddess Pratyangara which were stolen from Tamil Nadu. After the Minister will bring back to India, they will be kept safe at the National Museum, New Delhi.
India Pride, an organisation which is involved in getting the whereabouts of the stolen statues, said that it is a result of a long struggle and many meetings between Indian and Australian Government. Organisation’s Co-Founder Anurag Saxena said that around 70,000 antique statues were stolen from India post Independence, out of which the organisation has provided the proof of 280 statues. He further said that the Government did nothing for the past 20 years, but recently within the span of 18 months, 11 statues came back to homeland because of the continuous efforts.
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