Three stolen artworks arrive from USA, Australia

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, May 19:Three stolen artworks arrived in Nepal from Australia and the USA on Tuesday.

One of them arrived from Australia two others from the USA, according to the Department of Archaeology.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales returned the 13th-century wooden artefact.  

Likewise, a stone sculpture of a standing Buddha and a statue of Nrityadevi arrived in Nepal from the USA.   

Sarita Subedi, Archaeology Officer at the Department of Archaeology, said the carving strut was officially handed over by the  Art Gallery of New South Wales amid a ceremony held on the Patan Museum premises in Lalitpur on Tuesday.

The 1.3-meter tall strut was found in the collection of Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) in 2000. 

The artefact was stolen from the Ratneshwar Temple of Patan.

The strut is believed to have been stolen in 1975, although some records suggest it might have been stolen during a looting wave in the area in the 1980s. 

Other two statues - standing Buddha and Nrityadevi- were also returned to their origin nation and both were sent to the National Museum of Chhauni, she said. 

The 6th-century stone idol of the standing Buddha was located in the collection of filmmaker Michael Phillips, Beverly Hills, La, USA.    

It was stolen in the 1970s/80s from a Buddhist stupa in Machhindra Bahal, Bungamati of Lalitpur. 

The statue of Nrityadevi was stolen from I-Baha Bahi, Patan.