Stolen Yogini sculpture brought back to India from France

A sculpture of Yogini Vrishanana, which was stolen and landed in France, has been brought back to India and will be put up for display at the National Museum here.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and Culture Minister Chandresh Kumari Katoch would inaugurate the exhibition, 'Return of the Yogini' here.
The exhibition has been organised jointly by the National Museum and the National Museum Institute of History of Art, Conservation and Museology to mark the safe return of Yogini Vrishanana to India, an official statement said.
Weighing 400 kg, the sculpture landed in France and was acquired by art collector Robert Schrimpf. Later, his wife Martine informed the Indian Embassy in Paris about her desire to donate the sculpture in 2008.

Following this, the National Museum brought back the sculpture safely to India last month.
The sculpture was stolen from a Yogini temple at a small village Lokhari in Mau sub-division of Banda district of Uttar Pradesh between 1983 and 2008.

According to Museum officials, they had published a book on Yoginis in 1982-83 during which they confirmed that the sculpture was in the village and they came to know about it in 2008.
The Yogini temple at Lokhari, being an unprotected site, was identified as an important historical place after the discovery of Yogini sculptures. It was confirmed that the tradition of esoteric forms of worship was prevalent in that region in the 10th century BC. Yoginis are a group of powerful female divinities associated with the tantric mode of worship.

The yoginis were believed to possess infinite mystical powers such as the power of transformation and granting wishes.