Ten idols dating back to the 10th Century CE that were stolen from Tamil Nadu temples, starting from the 1960s till 2008, were on Wednesday handed over by the Centre to the State government at a ceremony in New Delhi
The Union Culture Ministry, which along with the Ministry of External Affairs had retrieved the idols from the United States and Australia in 2020, 2021 and 2022, handed over the antiquities to Tamil Nadu Director-General of Police C. Sylendra Babu.
The returned antiquities included two stone sculptures of Dwarapalas dating back to the 15th-16thCentury CE that were stolen from a temple in Tirunelveli district in 1994, according to the Culture Ministry. Both the sculptures were retrieved from Australia in 2020. Two metal idols of Kanakalamurti and Nandikeshava stolen from Narasinganadhar Swamy temple in Tirunelveli district in 1985 were retrieved from the U.S.
