Sivagurunathaswamy Temple, Sivapuram – Idol Theft
It is worth recalling that the beautiful Nataraja idol
was stolen years back from this temple and smuggled to a foreign country and
had been recovered after stiff legal battle. In 1951, idols of Lord
Nataraja, Tirugnanasambandar, Somaskandar, Pillaiyar and two other goddesses from the Later Chola
period were recovered by a farmer Annamuthu Padaiyachi in Kuppuswamy Iyer's
field. The farmer alerted government authorities about his find and handed
the idols to the authorities. On October 10, 1953, the District Collector of
Thanjavur donated the idols to the Sivagurunathaswamy temple to be installed
along with other deities.
On receipt of the idols, the temple authorities
commissioned sculptor Ramasamy Sthapathy to repair the idols. The idols
were subsequently returned to the temple after the repairs had been carried
out. Sometime later, Dr. Douglas Barrett of the British
Museum, who had visited the temple in
1961, wrote in his book South Indian Bronze that the Nataraja
idol in the Sivagurunathaswamy temple was fake and that the original idols were
in the possession of a private art collector in the United States of America.
This claim prompted the Government of Tamil Nadu to send
S. Krishnaraj, Deputy Inspector General, CID, to the USA to investigate the claim. As the
outcome of Krishnaraj's investigations, a case was registered at the Nachiyar Koil police station. The case was entrusted to the
Crime Branch CID and investigations were carried out with the assistance of
the Scotland Yard. It was found that in 1956, one Thilakar of Kuthalam and his brother Doss had persuaded Ramasamy Sthapathy
to lend the six idols to them in return for six fake ones which Ramasamy had
returned to the temple authorities.
The idols were purchased by a private art collector
Lance Dane of Bombay who kept the
idols in his possession for a decade before selling them to Bomman
Beharan. The idols eventually made their way to the United States where in
1973 they were purchased by Norton Simon Foundation for $900,000. The Indian
police arrested Lance Dane, Thilakar, Doss and Ramasamy
Sthapathy. Meanwhile, the Scotland Yard found out that the actual Nataraja
idol was in the possession of Anna
Plowden of England.
The Government of India filed a civil suit against the
Norton Simon Foundation. The Tamil Nadu government approached the
Government of the United States of America through India's Ministry of External
Affairs. The Nataraja idol was handed over to Dr. M. S. Nagaraja Rao, the
Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1987 and is currently present in a
safe-vault in the Kapaleeshwarar temple, Mylapore, Chennai.
