Oxford University has agreed to return a 500-year-old bronze sculpture of a Hindu poet and saint to India, according to the Ashmolean Museum.
The Indian High Commission in the United Kingdom filed a claim four years ago for the bronze figure of Tirumankai Alvar, which was reportedly plundered from a temple.
The planned repatriation comes amid a movement by foreign nations such as Nigeria, Egypt, and Greece, as well as Indigenous peoples from North America to Australia, to retrieve valuable antiquities taken or acquired via questionable ways during the British Empire's heyday.
Oxford agreed two years ago to return over 100 Benin bronzes to the Nigerian government, which had been taken in 1897 when British soldiers stormed and controlled Benin City as Britain increased its political and commercial power in West Africa.
Benin City as Britain increased its political and commercial power in West Africa.
The Ashmolean said it contacted the Indian High Commission in 2019 after researching picture archives and discovering the bronze in a temple in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu in 1957.
The museum stated that the university council supported the item's repatriation in March. The museum stated that it purchased the statue at Sotheby's in 1967. It stated that it did not know how collector Dr. J.R. Belmont acquired it.
The return of those artefacts has been stalled by the Charity Commission, an English and Welsh regulatory authority that determines whether returning art contradicts an organisation's humanitarian aim.
The Indian bronze will also require the commission's permission.
Culture: India to receive 500-year-old bronze sculpture back from Oxford University
