India making efforts to bring back stolen artefacts: Salman Khurshid

New Delhi, Sept 19: India will step up its efforts to bring back artefacts that have been illicitly trafficked out of the country, External Affairs Minister, Mr Salman Khurshid, said today.

Smt. Chandresh Kumari Katoch, Hon'ble Minister of Culture and Shri Salman Khurshid, Hon'ble Minister of External Affairs inaugurating the Exhibition "Return of the Yogini" at National Museum in New Delhi today.

Unveiling a 10th-century stone sculpture of the Yogini that was smuggled out of India a quarter century ago and brought back from Paris last month, he said the return of the majestic female deity signalled a major initiative in this direction.

“We should bring back our stolen antiquities. The government will provide all the support in the endeavour,” the minister told reporters at the National Museum where he jointly inaugurated an 18-day exhibition on ‘Return of the Yogini’, along with Union Culture Minister, Mrs Chandresh Kumari Katoch.

“It takes a lot of efforts to ensure the return of pilfered antiquities,” he said, hailing the sustained endeavour of the Indian Embassy in Paris and Delhi’s National Museum, where the 4.5-foot-tall sculpture would be on display till October 6. The event is unique, as it is the first time an Indian museum is holding single-object exhibition.

Smt. Chandresh Kumari Katoch, Hon'ble Minister of Culture and Shri Salman Khurshid, Hon'ble Minister of External Affairs viewing "Vrishanana Yogini" after inaugurating the exhibition "Return of the Yogini" at the National Museum in New Delhi today.

Mrs Katoch said the return of the Yogini was the first significant step in the recovery of India’s lost artefacts. “We have received information on some objects that can be brought back, but it will need sustained effort from the Indian Missions and the Ministry of Culture” she said.

Earlier, the two ministers were given a detailed presentation on the Yogini, the female representative of India’s mystical cult. National Museum Director-General Dr Venu V, along with curators Anupa Pande and E Dawon, explained to Mr Khurshid and Mrs Katoch the  systematic work that resulted in the return of  the 1100-year-old Vrishanana Yogini, with the buffalo-shaped head, that was stolen from a worn-out temple in a sleepy Lokhari village of Uttar Pradesh.

Vrishanana Yogini, with the buffalo-shaped head, weighs nearly 400 kg, and was illegally trafficked to the French capital, where it was acquired by a private art collector, Robert Schrimpf.  His widow, Mrs. Martine Schrimpf, donated it to the Indian embassy in Paris in 2008. “The artefact was was stolen from the temple recently, certainly after 1986,”  revealed Dr Venu.

Smt. Chandresh Kumari Katoch, Hon'ble Minister of Culture and Shri Salman Khurshid, Hon'ble Minister of External Affairs viewing "Vrishanana Yogini" after inaugurating the exhibition "Return of the Yogini" at the National Museum in New Delhi today.

The exhibition is intended to create awareness among the people of the country so that they become vigilant about their surroundings and prevent the cultural artefacts from being smuggled into international markets, he added.

India has been losing a large number of antiquities through illicit trafficking in cultural properties.  Many of these end up in the hands of collectors, and even in prominent museums of the world.  The yogini temples, situated in isolated locations, have become easy targets for local theft, which ensures their clandestine passage in the international market. For instance, the yogini sculptures from Kanchipuram are now in leading museums across the world, such as the Nelson Atkins Museum in Kansas City, Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Freer-Sackler Gallery of Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. and the British Museum in London.