Tamil Nadu Police's Idol Wing has stopped the auction of an antique at the European Fine Arts Exhibition in the Netherlands. The idol, dating to the 11th or 12th century, was stolen from the Arulmigu Agneeswaraswamy Temple in Nagapattinam fifteen years ago, NDTV was told.
Leads were scarce at that time, but Tamil Nadu Police kept their heads down, followed the clues, and cracked the case, and have now tracked down the whereabouts of the idol.
Acting on the cops' inputs, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and local police took custody of the Kannappa Nayanar idol in March. Legal procedures to retrieve the idol are underway.
"We estimate this to be worth between Rs 6 and 8 crore and will get to know more about it once we get custody," Kalapana Nayak, Additional Director-General with the Idol Wing, told NDTV.
On challenges in retrieving the idol, she said, "It was difficult to trace since it has been 15 years since it was stolen. But we worked quickly when we found out it was in the Netherlands."
Over the last few years Ms Nayak and her colleagues have recovered 374 idols - 36 made of metal, 265 of stone, and 73 from wood.
The idol shows Kannapa Nayanar - a devotee of Lord Shiva - standing on a pedestal and placing his right hand on the head. There are intricate carvings all over the body.
According to legend Nayanar was born in what is now Andhra Pradesh. A hunter by profession, he became devoted to Shiva when he found a representation of the god in the forest.
He began offering meat and water to the representation, or the lingam.
Legend says he found it 'bleeding' once and cut out his eye and offered it the lingam. When its second eye began bleeding, he was about to cut out his second and offer that too.
Moved by his devotion Shiva restored his sight.
The lingam he found is worshiped at a temple in Andhra.
