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

A 16th-century bronze statue of Sri Thirumankai Alva taken from a temple in Tamil Nadu is one of several pieces of Indian heritage returned to India from Britain.The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford acquired this 57.5cm tall statue of a South Indian Hindu saint in good faith in 1967 and put it on display. According to Sotheby’s, it was sold to the museum by private collector Dr. JR Belmont (1886-1981). There is no information on how it came to be in his collection.However, in November 2019, a French academic alerted the Oxford University Museum, and research revealed that the photo of the bronze was taken in 1957 at the Soundarrajaperumal temple in Thadikombu village in Tamil Nadu. This made the museum aware that its provenance was unknown, so the museum decided to investigate.Although a formal claim has not yet been made, the Ashmolean Museum wrote to the Indian High Commission on December 16, 2019, requesting more information and stating that the museum was willing to discuss its possible return.On February 11, 2020, a temple executive officer filed a police report stating that modern replicas had replaced the original bronzes. The Indian High Commissioner subsequently formally requested the return of the bronze on March 3, 2020.At the request of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the museum commissioned a metal analysis of the bronze and submitted the results to provide a report on its provenance.Dr.