Canada balks at returning statue India says was stolen from world heritage site
India is trying to repatriate a “voluptuous” 12th-century statue of a woman with a parrot on her bare shoulder that somehow ended up in the hands of the Department of Canadian Heritage.
The life-size sandstone statue — apparently stolen from Khajuraho, a United Nations world heritage site — has been in the possession of heritage officials in Edmonton since 2011, but Canada has not handed it over because Indian authorities can’t provide proof of ownership or that it was stolen, the Economic Times of India reported Tuesday.
In a statement to Postmedia News, the Indian High Commission in Ottawa said the Archaeological Survey of India had “confirmed that the sculpture is of Indian origin” and that a written request has been sent to the Department of Canadian Heritage to “release and hand over the sculpture to the High Commission of India.”
Officials with the Department of Canadian Heritage refused an interview request Tuesday and would not acknowledge that the statue was in their possession. In an emailed statement, department spokeswoman Mahtab Farahani wrote that Canada would seek to return cultural property belonging to another state under the rules of the 1977 Cultural Property Export and Import Act. While that state does not need to demonstrate ownership of the property, it is required to show that “the cultural property was illegally exported from that state,” she said.
Canadian heritage officials wrote to the Indian High Commission in Ottawa about the statue in 2011, according to the Times article, but it took three years for the commission to forward the message to India. A photo of the statue is being circulated to all the field offices of the Archaeological Survey of India to see if anyone has any record of the theft.
“The statue is clearly a product of the Bundelkhand region and fits in perfectly with the other sculptures of Khajuraho, but we can’t do anything until we can show Canadian authorities proof of ownership,” a senior official with the archaeological survey told the Times.
India’s Central Bureau of Investigation, which investigates major crimes, this month was contacted by the Archaeological Survey of India about the statue and it, too, has opened an investigation, agency spokeswoman Kanchan Prasad said. “(The statue) is invaluable. It’s a very ancient property. That’s what is being told to us,” Prasad said.
It is not clear how Canadian heritage officials came into possession of the statue. Prasad said it was her understanding that Canadian customs officials intercepted it.