Idol Thief Subhash Chandra Kapoor’s warehouse (who is one of the most prolific commodities smugglers in the world) had more than $100 million worth of stolen Indian Art

6 min readNov 9, 2022

His NY warehouse had more than $100 million worth of stolen Indian art! The pair of Nataraja and Sivakami (900 yrs) fetched him $ 8.5 million, the idols belonged to the Chola Era.

Background:

The Udayarpalayam taluk of the Ariyalur District, in Tamil Nadu, India has nearly 463 ancient temples, of which 200 belong to the Chola period dated 9th to 10th century AD. Most of these temples haven’t seen maintenance for many decades and have lax security. Local thieves used to target the idols for their metal content, usually melting them. Some idols are pure gold, silver and panchaloha — five precious metals. However, the entry of international smuggling cartels has changed the situation. With antique Chola art being worth millions in the international market, idol thieves were recruited to lift them from the temples. In 2008, one such gang allegedly recruited by New York-based art dealer Subhash Kapoor was responsible for stealing eight idols from the Brihadeeswarar temple at Sripuranthan, 18 idols from the Varadharaja Perumal temple, and in 2010, 6 panchaloha idols from Chozeeshwarar temple at Vikiramangalam.

And when the US authorities subsequently raided Kapoor’s warehouses in New York more skeletons came tumbling out of his closet. They recovered no less than $100 million worth of stolen Indian art! This was just Kapoor’s inventory — he had been in business for close to four decades and the true scale of his loot is incalculable. The US declared Kapoor one of the most prolific commodities smugglers in the world.

State of one our Temples in Tamil Nadu, 800-year-old Sundareswara Temple in Suthamalli

Idols Returned from Museums across the World

Australia :

The Sripuranthan Natarajan Idol, is a 900-year-old statue of Natarajan — the dancing Shiva — that was stolen from the ancient Brihadeeswarar temple of Sripuranthan, smuggled to the United States, and then sold to the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra with a false provenance, for US$5.1 million. In March 2014, Ron Radford, the director of the National Gallery of Australia, removed the idol from display. In September 2014, the Australian government returned the Natarajan idol to India, along with another stolen antique idol of Shiva as Ardhanarishvarar which was displayed at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The two were handed over by the then Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 5 September 2014, at New Delhi.

Germany :

The Linden Museum in Germany returned to the Indian government a 9th-century AD idol of Mahishasumardini, stolen from Pulwama district in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1990s, which had been acquired from Kapoor.

USA :

The Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio returned four artifacts acquired from Kapoor, including the Vinayagar statue stolen from Sripuranthan. The other antiques are a stone idol of Varaha Rescuing the Earth (acquired 2001), Mughal origin 18th-century enamel with gold box (acquired 2008), and a watercolour Rasikapriya from the Samdehi Ragini (acquired 2010).

In November 2015, the United States returned a chola period bronze of Shivan and Parvathi, which was sold to the David Owsley Museum of Art at the Ball State University in 2005 by Subhash Kapoor. Here also, the sculpture was sold with a false provenance which placed it back to an American collection of Leo Figie, dated to 1969. The idol was recovered by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

In June 2016, the United States returned nearly 200 antiques to the Indian Government, in the presence of the visiting Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi at Washington DC. Among the antiques returned were the Chola period (850 AD to 1250 AD) bronze of the Tamil Shaivite poet Manikkavacakar stolen from the Sivan Temple in Madras and the 1000 year old Sripuranthan Vinayagar which was displayed at the Toledo Museum of Art.

Singapore :

In March 2016, the Natarajan idol was re-united with its consort Uma Parmeshwari, at the ASI Icon Centre, Kumbakonam, after nearly 8 years. The Singapore Civilisation Museum had finally returned the Uma Parmeshwari after long negotiations with the Indian Government.

Overall four of the eight statues stolen from Sripuranthan were traced, with three to the United States and one to Singapore.

Work on getting the Gods Stolen was not Easy. However, the National Gallery of Australia, continued to deny that the artwork was stolen, refused to return it, and continued to display it in the gallery, without any note of its doubtful provenance. This stand was criticised by the Australian media, with Duncan Chappell, criminology expert from University of Sydney, calling it in-appropriate and an international embarrassment. The Government of India formally requested the artwork to be returned, under the UNESCO convention on stolen antiquities

How did he Succeed for so long without getting caught ??

Subhash Chandra Kapoor, main man who made him from selling terracotta to idols where big money is Sanjeevi Asokan an art dealer based out of Chennai.

The plan involved identifying villages in and around TN, look for temples which remained closed or neglected for years. The Cholas love for bronze idols were immense even small temples in remote villages has great idols.

Subash Kapoor used 3 main books where he sourced which temples to rob and which temples had what idols, the books were,

The Chola Temples, S.R Balasubrahmanyam
Early Chola Bronzes, Douglas Barrett
Bronzes of South India — P.R Srinivasan

Problem :

Neglect some temples have been closed for years, rituals happen once a few years
No Photographic evidence of what idols are in what temples
No of idols in each temples is not documented
ASI was sleeping along
Diplomats and moles who sold their soles to sell our gods
Worst was the robbery was not detected even after years after it was robbed and the Statues had already been sold museums and were displayed in the Galleries

Original Post on r/IndiaSpeaks by u/Orwellisright

Inspiration :

The Idol Thief — Book by S. Vijay Kumar (Idolatry expert) Worth Read!

Who is Vijay Kumar ???

Author Vijay Kumar was one of the prominent person who studied and exposed the idol trade business of Subash Kapoor. He has exposed the relationship between Subhash Kapoor and Sanjeevi Ashokan which goes beyond thee bronzes, the loopholes and contacts in the entire system helps them route the idols from Indian shores across the word without being caught. But despite many corrupt officials the Indian bureaucracy also has some good honest officers on its payroll. Being art enthusiast used his study and source along with the enthusiastic group (An officer from US Immigration and customs who encountered an abandoned shipment earlier) did a magnificent job of identifying the stolen Bronzes, across museums in the world, and establishing the proof which eased the efforts of the Police. The author and his team studied various pictures from Museums and collated the data with historical information about the location of the idols and iconography in various Temples to prove the thefts.

His two pertinent questions for us:

To the top Museums of the world, what’s the point of curating and documenting systematically when the Murtis are basically stolen from Ancient Temples of India that has survived invasions over 800 plus years? Quite shameless.
Specifically to all my fellow Indians, what exactly are you proud of as a Hindu/Indian? If not for our Temple structures, exquisite sculptures, what then? A reader can get a clear picture on the global network and their greed towards our precious and how apathy from our side to even have a photograph makes it difficult to establish evidence. Even though it is a Pan-India problem, I assume it is more in Tamil Nadu.

Sources :