Toledo Ganesha
Object or Group Name
Case Summary
According to Indian investigators, Manhattan antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor traveled to Tamil Nadu a year earlier and met with Sanjivi Asokan, the alleged head of a ring of idol thieves in the region. Kapoor asked for Chola-era bronzes, which were in high demand on the art market. Over the next several months, Asokan allegedly hired thieves whom he paid 700,000 rupees, or approximately USD $12,000, to break into the Sivan Temple and steal the Ganesha and seven other idols.
The Toledo Museum purchased the bronze for USD $245,000 in 2006 with a false provenance. In a letter dated January 2nd, 2006 on Art of the Past letterhead, Kapoor’s girlfriend Selina Mohamed claimed to have inherited the sculpture from her mother, Rajpati Singh Mohamad, who was said to have purchased it on a trip to India in 1971 – the year before India passed its Antiquities and Art Treasures Act. Mohamed claimed to have had possession of the sculpture in New York since that date.
The match between the stolen idol and Toledo's Ganesha was first noted in 2012 by Vijay Kumar, who carefully detailed the similarities between two. Reporter Jason Felch contacted the Toledo Museum of Art in 2012 and again in 2013 requesting information about its Kapoor acquisitions. The museum declined to provide any information. In 2014, Felch again requested the information and the museum released a list of 64 objects acquired from Kapoor, including the Ganesha.
Later that year, the Toledo Museum acknowledged that the federal government was investigating its acquisition of the bronze Ganesha sculpture and 63 other objects. Soon after, the museum's Art Committee voted in September 2015 to repatriate the Ganesha sculpture to India. Museum leadership, including director Brian Kennedy and Asian Art curator Carolyn Putney, insisted that the museum "did adequate research," that Putney "personally spoke to the listed previous owner," and that they had checked the Art Loss Register.
Selina Mohamed was criminally charged in December 2014 by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for participating in a decades-long conspiracy to launder stolen antiquities for Kapoor.
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Sources
UPDATED > Trouble in Toledo: Feds Investigate Stolen Ganesh, Other Objects from Kapoor at Toledo Museum
https://chasingaphrodite.com/2014/02/24/trouble-in-toledo-documents-show-museum-bought-stolen-ganesh-from-kapoor/
Poetry in Stone. Kapoor Files- Art of the Loot Part 9- Toledo Ganesha.
https://web.archive.org/web/20131109185355/http://poetryinstone.in/lang/en/2013/11/05/kapoor-files-art-of-the-loot-part-9-toledo-ganesha.html
Toledo Museum of Art to Return Four Works of Art with Falsified or Inadequate Provenance Documentation to Republic of India
https://web.archive.org/web/20160721175448/http://www.toledomuseum.org/provenance/kapoor-acquisitions/
Government of Tamil Nadu - Police Department. Economic Defenses Wing. Status of Cases.
https://www.tneow.gov.in/IDOL/status_info.html
Toledo Museum of Art Returns Stolen Statue to India
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/toledo-museum-of-art-returns-stolen-statue-to-india-134270#:~:text=The%20Toledo%20Museum%20of%20Art%20is%20giving%20an%20almost%201%2C000,a%20committee%20vote%20in%20August.
Bronze statue on display at Toledo Museum of Art being returned to Government of India
https://www.toledoblade.com/a-e/art/2014/10/02/1-000-year-old-statue-on-display-at-Toledo-Museum-of-Art-being-returned-to-Government-of-India/stories/20141002165