Is BSU museum piece stolen art?

MUNCIE – There is more than one reason to suspect that a 1,000-year-old idol on display at the David Owsley Museum of Art was stolen from a temple in India.

The small bronze statue in the museum at Ball State University shows Shiva, one of the main deities of Hinduism, at the time of his marriage to Parvati, the goddess of love.

The museum bought the artifact 10 years ago from New York City art dealer Subhash Kapoor to honor Owsley, the grandson of one of Ball State's founders and the foremost supporter of the museum.

Kapoor has since been accused of being one of the world's most prolific art smugglers/temple raiders in a federal investigation named "Operation Hidden Idol." So far, thousands of pieces valued at $150 million have been recovered.

"In 2005, the museum purchased the statue of Shiva and Parvati in good faith from the art dealer Subhash Kapoor, who claimed full title to the work and provided documentation of its provenance (origin) since 1969," museum director Robert La France told The Star Press.

There is no proof that it's stolen, he added.

However, blogger Vijay Kumar, who has helped to identify many stolen idols in foreign countries, wrote in the Indian English-language daily newspaper The Times of India last week that "it is likely that the provenance papers of this (Ball State) statue are fake, given Kapoor's record."

"We will have to identify the temple it belongs to so we can make a claim on the statue — a 'Pradosha Murthy,' " Kumar wrote.

The base of the statue contains an inscription in Tamil language that reads, "Thipampaapuram Sivigai Naayagar," according to Kumar.

"There are a few temples in the Tamil Nadu (region of India) that have names such as Thirupampuram, Thipamburam and so on," Kumar wrote. "The quality of preservation of this bronze shows that the statue was under worship. It was sold in 2005, the same time when Sripuranthan and Suthamalli were looted. With the help of the public, the authorities including the police should take all efforts to bring home this statue."

After The Star Press sent La France a copy of Kumar's report, La France said he immediately wrote to the Consulate General of India in Chicago.

Last October, the Toledo Museum of Art announced that it was returning to the government of India a 1,000-year-old bronze statue of the Hindu deity Ganesh, which it had purchased from Kapoor's Art of the Past Gallery in 2006. The museum paid $245,000 for the statue.

Museum spokeswoman Kelly Garrow told The Star Press: "I can tell you that this museum has treated all objects obtained from Art of the Past and Subhash Kapoor as suspect, and all are subject to the Justice Department investigation currently underway. We have announced the return of one object and anticipate that other objects we purchased from Kapoor, though not all, will be returned at the conclusion of that investigation. This is a case of massive fraud perpetrated against museums and collectors by Mr. Kapoor. It will take years for everything to be sorted out."

The Ganesha, which closely resembled an Indian police photograph of a Ganesha figure stolen from Sripuranthan Village in Tamil Nadu, was removed from public display in Toledo.

Garrow declined to speculate on the value of the Ball State's museum statue, purchased in Owsley's honor when he was awarded an honorary doctor of humanities in 2005. Owsley has been a curator at such museums as The Met.

"It's not our policy to publicize the prices of works in the collection," La France said. "As far as I'm concerned, all the works in the permanent collection were purchased or donated as lasting gifts to the students at Ball State, the people of Muncie and the state of Indiana. I consider them priceless and hope that you do, too."

At the time the Toledo museum purchased the Ganesha, it received a provenance affidavit, and the curator personally spoke to the listed previous owner. The object also was run through the Art Loss Registry with no issues detected.

The label describing BSU's Shiva and Parvati statue indicates it is highly valuable, purchased with donations from the Friends Fund, George and Frances Ball Foundation, Ball Brothers Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. John Fisher, Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Owsley, Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Sargent, Mr. and Mrs. David Galliher, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Bracken, Mr. and Mrs. James Ganter, Miss Barbara Goodbody, Mr. and Mrs. Ned Griner, Mrs. Lucina Ball Moxley, Mr. and Mrs. Hamer Shafer, Dr. and Mrs. Christopher Stack, Mrs. David Sursa, Mr. and Mrs. J. Frederic Wiese, Jr., and other generous donors.

The Toledo Blade reported that museums don't carry insurance against the loss of art discovered to be stolen.

Asked whether Ball State would purchase another artwork in honor of Owsley if Shiva and Parvati are found to have been looted antiquities, La France replied: "Please don't jump the gun. The museum has documentation for the provenance of the statue ... which was purchased in good faith. There is no proof that it was removed from India illegally. But it is prudent, given the recent accusations against Mr. Kapoor, to review every item that passed through his hands — even those that did so legally."

The label in the Owsley Museum's South and Southeast Asia gallery reports that it includes Buddhist and Hindu temple and secular architectural fragments, sculpture and painting.

"As far as I know, the Shiva and Parvati is the only work in the collection purchased from Mr. Kapoor," La France said.

The label for the Shiva and Parvati statue identifies it as an object from the Chola period (860-1279 CE) in Tamil Nadu, South India, estimating its date at 1000 A.D.

Many American museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, have been identified as holding Kapoor artwork.

"Having Kapoor's name on an item means it smells bad enough for us to get rid of it," Stephan Jost, director of the Honolulu Museum of Art, told The New York Times in April. "We wanted to send a really clear signal that owning tainted art is not part of our mission."

The Honolulu museum gave back seven objects including Buddhist relics and figurines obtained from Kapoor between 1991 and 2003.

Kapoor was arrested in Germany in 2011 and was extradited a year later to India, where he awaits trial.

Announcing Operation Hidden Idol in 2012, agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) urged collectors and museums to further scrutinize their collections and contact HSI with any additional information. HSI said it would aggressively pursue the illicit pieces not yet recovered.

At that time, HSI had seized a 14th century bronze Parvati statue and four bronze Tamil Nadu figures, estimated as a group to be worth more than $5 million, linked to Kapoor.

Authorities have not contacted the BSU museum, which "believes in transparency," La France said. "In fact, it appears that the Times of India found its information about the statue on the BSU website."

Meanwhile, Shiva and Parvati look content, peaceful and merry in their display case at Owsley.

"The subject is love and marriage," La France said, "and I encourage people to come and see the work while it is on display in the gallery of the South Asian art during the investigation."

Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834.