Following on from the return of the Shiva Nataraja idol from the National Gallery of Australia in 2014, two more Indian artefacts are now set to be restituted by the same institution to their country of origin. These are the sculptures ‘Goddess Pratyangira’ and ‘Worshippers of the Buddha’, both purchased by the gallery in 2005 from Art of the Past in New York, the now discredited antiquities dealership run by Subhash Kapoor. Kapoor was arrested in 2011 for his involvement in an antiquities looting ring and is currently awaiting trial.

The returns follow a long process of provenance research by the gallery, which had been prompted by the outcry surrounding the Shiva Nataraja, also bought from Kapoor’s dealership, which had been stolen from a temple in India.