Oxford University has agreed to return a 500-year-old bronze sculpture of the Hindu poet and saint Tirumankai Alvar to India. The Indian High Commission in the UK made a claim four years ago for the bronze figure, which was allegedly looted from a temple.
The planned repatriation comes amid a push by foreign governments and Indigenous peoples seeking to reclaim precious antiquities looted or acquired by questionable means during the British Empire. Oxford agreed two years ago to return nearly 100 Benin bronzes to the Nigerian government that were looted in 1897.
The Ashmolean Museum, where the Indian bronze is currently held, said it reached out to the Indian High Commission in 2019 after research from photo archives showed the bronze in a temple in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu in 1957. The museum bought the statue at Sotheby’s in 1967, but it is unclear how collector Dr. J.R. Belmont had acquired it.
The return of the Indian bronze, as well as the Benin bronzes, still requires approval from the Charity Commission, a regulatory body in England and Wales that decides if returning art undermines an organization’s charitable mission.
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