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National Gallery to hand back Indian sculptures linked to illegal art ring

Worshippers of the Buddha is one of two statues to be repatriated.

Worshippers of the Buddha is one of two statues to be repatriated. Photo: ABC

The National Gallery of Australia (NGA) will return two ancient sculptures to the Indian government, as evidence they may have been obtained through an illegal art smuggling ring grows.

The gallery purchased the sculptures, Goddess Pratyangira and Worshippers of the Buddha, in 2005 from a New York-based dealer called Art of the Past.

Company owner Subhash Kapoor was arrested in 2011 over alleged links to the illicit art trade, and is currently awaiting trial.

Together the statues are worth an estimated $1.1 million, but documentation provided to the gallery during their purchase is suspected to have been falsified.

Photographs provided to the gallery indicate the Goddess of Pratyangira statue was still in India in 1974 – directly contradicting the provenance (record of ownership) which Art of the Past supplied to the NGA.

Similarly, provenance related to Worshippers of the Buddha was brought into question, after the gallery was shown photographs of the limestone statue in India as late as the 1990s.

“This new evidence means the NGA cannot legally or ethically retain these works,” NGA director Gerard Vaughan said.

“Returning them to India is unquestionably the right thing to do.

“We have been working closely with the Archaeological survey of India and the Indian High Commissioner to Australia to find the best outcome.”

The statues have not been on display at the gallery since August 2015, and the origins of Indian antiquities at the NGA have been called into question in the past.

The NGA suspects records of the statue Goddess Pratyangira may have been falsified.

The NGA suspects records of the statue Goddess Pratyangira may have been falsified. Photo: ABC

NGA deputy director Kirsten Paisley said the gallery was continuing investigations into other objects of questionable provenance.

“With respect to Art of the Past, there are eight sculptures that we believe we need to focus … our research going forward,” she said.

“We at the NGA will look at every option available to us with respect to recouping the costs that have been lost through the acts of fraud that have been committed against the gallery.”

In 2014 a 900-year-old statue known as the Dancing Shiva was returned to India because it was believed to have been stolen from a temple.

It was announced in 2015 that a stone Buddha would also be given back to India, after it emerged it was stolen from an archaeological site.

It is not yet clear when the two artworks will be returned to their country of origin.

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