The Idol Thief
S Vijay Kumar
Juggernaut
224 pages; Rs 499
On Independence Day this year, the UK returned to India a 12th-century bronze Buddha statue stolen from the Archaeological Museum in Nalanda in 1961. Michael Ellis, the UK minister for arts, heritage and tourism, told The Guardian that Britain was one of the first countries to recover one of the 14 stolen statues. What neither Mr Ellis nor The Guardian mentioned is the large number of stolen ancient Indian art that remains in private collections as well as museums in Europe and the US, often supplied through illegal channels. This book tells the
