AUSTRALIA, December 6, 2013 (The Australian): The National Gallery of Australia will launch legal proceedings against disgraced art dealer Subhash Kapoor after it was confirmed yesterday the gallery’s prized 900-year-old dancing Shiva was stolen from India.The $5 million bronze, which last night was still on display at the entry to the gallery’s Indian Gallery, was the first item cited in the New York Supreme Court yesterday where the long-time shop manager for Kapoor pleaded guilty to six counts of trading in stolen property worth $US35 million ($38.8m).
Aaron Freedman, 41, admitted creating fake documentation and arranging shipping for antiquities stolen from India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Cambodia and other countries. He admitted creating false collecting history documents and liaising with buyers, including Canberra’s NGA. The gallery’s bronze Shiva Nataraja was the first item cited in the court documents, which revealed it was “owned by the Central Government of India” after being stolen from Sivan Temple in Ariyalur District of Tamil Nadu, southern India. The theft took place between January and November 2006, after which the Shiva was shipped to New York. Kapoor is being held in India where he is accused of being the mastermind of a $100m antiquities looting enterprise.
Under the terms of UNESCO’s movable Cultural Heritage treaty to which Australia and India are signatories, all items found stolen will need to be returned. A spokesman for Attorney-General George Brandis confirmed that the gallery was co-operating with the Indian high commission.
The new fact to emerge is that Kapoor and Freedman were also involved in the sale of another stolen idol to the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) in Singapore. According to the complaint, a 1,000-year bronze idol of Uma Parmeshvari was stolen from a temple in Ariyalur district of Tamil Nadu and was illicitly transported to the U.S. In February 2007, Kapoor sold the sculpture to the ACM for US $650,000 and shipped it to Singapore.