Idol Wing CID Police has begun its probe to trace who stole an exquisite sculpture of Chola queen Sembiyan Mahadevi, nearly a century ago, from a nondescript village temple in Nagapattinam district, where she is worshipped as God. The special unit of police has initiated steps to recover the piece that was spotted at Freer Gallery in Washington D.C., USA, and a complaint was taken up for investigation. The existing sculpture in the temple was found to be a replica.
Director General of Police, Idol Wing CID K.Jayanth Murali told The Hindu, "Freer Gallery of Art purchased the Sembiyan Mahadevi sculpture from Hagop Kevorkian in New York in 1929 for an undisclosed price. Hagop Kevorkian, an art collector died in 1962. We have begun to probe into the theft of the sculpture; how Hagop Kevorkian acquired the idol; and the price he paid for it. We have also sought assistance from Homeland Security to unearth his links with other art collectors since he had sold several antiquities and artefacts from India and other countries."
The probe began after Elephant G.Rajendran lodged a complaint in 2018 after he visited Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M.Sackler Gallery in December 2015, where he saw a lot of antiquities belonging to various countries, particularly from the Chola dynasty. One of the collections which drew his attention was a metal sculpture with a note below the pedestal recorded as "Sembiyan Mahadevi, Chola dynasty, 10th century,Tamilnadu, India”. It was about 3.5 feet in height.
