Oxford museum set to return 500-year-old bronze statue taken from Tamil Nadu temple

A 16th-century bronze statue of Saint Tirumankai Alvar, taken from a temple in Tamil Nadu, is among several Indian heritage items that are being returned to India from the UK.The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford acquired the 57.5cm tall statue of the South Indian Hindu saint in good faith in 1967 and had it on display.

According to Sotheby's, it was sold to the museum by the private collector, Dr J R Belmont (1886-1981).

There is no information on how it entered his collection.However, in Nov 2019, a French scholar alerted the University of Oxford museum to research indicating that a photograph of the bronze had been taken in 1957 in the temple of Soundarrajaperumal temple in Thadikombu, a village in Tamil Nadu. This made the museum aware that its provenance was unclear, so the museum decided to investigate.

Although no formal claim had been made, the Ashmolean wrote to the Indian High Commission on 16 Dec 2019, requesting further information and indicating the museum's willingness to discuss its possible return.On 11 Feb 2020 a temple executive officer filed a police report noting that a modern replica had replaced the original bronze. The Indian High Commissioner then made a formal claim for return of the bronze on 3 March 2020.

At request of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the museum commissioned metal analysis of the bronze and submitted results to inform a report on its provenance.Director of the Ashmolean Dr Xa Sturgis said: "The Ashmolean is pleased to see this important object returned to India and we are grateful to the Indian authorities and scholars who have helped establish its provenance. The museum and University of Oxford are committed to ethical collections practices and continued research into our collections, their origins and history."