Two stolen artefacts, a Shiva panel and Shalabhanjika Yakshi strut, have been returned to Nepal from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
As per local media reports, the artistic wooden strut was crafted in 14th century and was stolen from main gate of Kathmandu Metropolitan City-24 Itumbahal Mahabihar in about 1984-85. The Shiva panel that has been returned is an 11th century stone panel that had gone missing in 1995 from Kangkeshwari temple located at KMC-19. Apparently, both these artefacts were ‘donated’ to the Metropolitan Museum of Arts.
Erin L. Thompson, art crime professor at The City University of New York in December 2021 had tweeted to the Metropolitan Museum of Arts from Nepal that the Yakshi in their collection belongs to Nepal.
She had been visiting Kathmandu in Nepal and said that the above statue was stolen from the Buddhist monastery. Now that the artefact is returned to Nepal, she said that she had written to the museum in 2021 about the sculpture and they had replied that they had known about it since 2016 but were still processing the same.
But now it seems, the artefacts have finally been returned.