Ashmolean awaits decision on return of Indian sculpture

The Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford is waiting for the Charity Commission to approve the return of an Indian 16th-century bronze sculpture.

A statement from the university said: “On 11 March 2024 the Council of the University of Oxford supported a claim from the Indian High Commission for the return of a 16th-century bronze sculpture of Saint Tirumankai Alvar from the Ashmolean Museum. This decision will now be submitted to the Charity Commission for approval.”

The University of Oxford said it is not aware when the Charity Commission will make its decision.

The issue first came to light in November 2019 when an independent scholar brought new research to attention of the Ashmolean relating to the provenance of the cast-bronze sculpture of a standing figure of a Buddha. The item was acquired by the museum at Sotheby’s auction house in 1967.  

Research in the photo archives of the Institut Français de Pondichery and the Ecole française d’Extrême Orient (IFP-EFEO) showed the same bronze in the temple of Shri Soundarrajaperumal Kovil in Tamil Nadu in 1957.  The Ashmolean was informed that the bronze is one of a number of objects in collections in Europe and the US identified by this researcher through the IFP-EFEO archive.

Although there was no claim against the object, the museum informed the Indian High Commission on 16 December 2019, requesting any further information (including possible police records) that would help establish the object’s provenance. The Ashmolean also informed the high commission that it was open to holding discussions about the possible repatriation of the sculpture. 

The Indian High Commissioner acknowledged the Ashmolean’s letter on 24 December 2019 and informed the museum that the information it provided had been forwarded to the Indian authorities.

The museum received a formal claim for the bronze from the Indian High Commissioner on 3 March 2020. Progress on deciding the future of the object was slowed down by pandemic, which delayed a visit to India by the Ashmolean’s curator of Indian art.

According to the Sotheby’s catalogue, the bronze was sold by a private collector, J R Belmont (1886-1981). The Ashmolean does not know how the bronze entered Belmont's collection.

The Ashmolean Museum's 2020 collections policy, referring to the repatriation of colonial material, states that "the director, following the university policy, together with national and international legislation, will take decisions on the repatriation of such material on a case by case basis".