Ball State Shiva and Parvati

Ball State Shiva and Parvati

In 2005, Ball State University Museum of Art in Indiana, US, acquired this Chola Period 'Festival Bronze' sculpture depicting Shiva and Parvati from Subhash Kapoor's Art of the Past gallery in New York.

It was purchased for USD $100,000 with the financial backing of several donors to commemorate the honorary degree given to David T Owsley, the grandson of the university's founder, and approved by the then-Director Peter Blume. Kapoor claimed legal title, and presented the museum with false provenance documents in the form of a letter attributed to Indian art collector Leo Figiel. Figiel's letter stated the sculpture derived "From a European collection in 1969".

According to research by Vijay Kumar and his India Pride Project, in the early 2000's, perhaps 2004, the sculpture was stolen from a temple in Tamil Nadu, India. The base of the bronze has an inscription in Tamil that reads: Thipampaapuram Sivigai Naayagar. There are only a few temples in Tamil Nadu that have similar names, such as Thirupampuram and Thipamburam. The condition of the sculpture in the early 2000s indicated that it was actively being worshiped at the time of its theft, but might have been first removed from the Sivan temple in the village of Deepambalpuram, Tamil Nadu, much earlier.

After Kapoor's record of antiquities smuggling became public following his arrest in October 2011, US Homeland Security Investigations began "Operation Hidden Idol" to investigate objects from Kapoor held in numerous museums. The David Owsley Museum's then-Director Robert De La France pledged a full evaluation of their collection and identified the Shiva and Parvati as being purchased from Kapoor.

The sculpture was recovered in 2021 and sent to New York as evidence against Kapoor for an investigation led by the Idol Wing of the Tamil Nadu Criminal Investigation Department (IW-CID). It was later forfeited and repatriated to India with other Chola bronzes Kapoor had trafficked.

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Chola Period, circa 860 - 1279 C.E.

David Owsley Museum of Art

2005.011

India

Jason Felch

Damien Huffer