Ms Angela Merkel is in India, on a mission to clear the path for
German companies keen to do business in India, as Prime Minister Shri Narendra
Modi looks to the European powerhouse to help revive its economy. Angela Dorothea Merkel is no ordinary
politician – the Chancellor of Germany since 2005 and the first woman to hold
this Office has a Ph.D. in quantum chemistry.
She is among the favourites to win this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for her
response to the refugee crisis, according to researchers and bookmakers. “Angela
Merkel has been quite remarkable in taking leadership in a rather embarrassing
discussion in the European context and expressing a clear moral voice” that has
helped turn the debate around, Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the Peace
Research Institute in Oslo, said recently.
There is more news to cheer as - Germany on Monday returned to
India a 10th century Durga
idol which had gone missing from a temple in Kashmir over two decades back and
was later found in that country. The idol was handed over by visiting German
Chancellor Angela Merkel to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi after their talks
in New Delhi, three years after it was spotted in a museum in Stuttgart. Shri Modiji
thanked Merkel and the people of Germany
for returning the idol, saying “The statue is from Jammu and Kashmir & is a
symbol of victory of good over evil.”
The federal state of Baden-Württemberg returned the statue
called "Durga Mahishasuramardini" to the Republic of India "for
ethical reasons", Arndt Oschmann from the Ministry of Science, Research
and Arts said earlier. According to
Press release, the Linden State Museum for Ethnology in Stuttgart bought the
statue in the year 2000, using funds from Baden-Württemberg's Museum
Foundation. The stone idol cost $250,000 (Rs.1.63 crores). "Back then, the
Linden Museum examined where the statue came from, but there were no qualms
about its origin. The seller, Subhash Kapoor from New York, was known as a
reliable art dealer," ministry spokesman Oschmann explained.
That was not to be - more than a decade later, Kapoor was
arrested at Frankfurt International Airport and extradited to India in July
2012 on charges of handling stolen artifacts from temples in southern India.
"It turned out that the statue disappeared from a temple in Tengpona in
India in the year 1991 and that it was smuggled out of the country
eventually," Oschmann told DW.
The statue of the Hindu goddess Durga is estimated to date back
to the 9th or 10th century, according to the Linden Museum. Neither the museum
nor the federal state of Baden-Württemberg will receive any financial
compensation. However, returning the statue as a goodwill gesture strengthens
the state's reputation, said Jürgen Walter, Secretary of State in the Ministry
of Science, Research and Arts. "The importance of a good reputation
exceeds by far the material value of the statue," he stated.
According to the "Daily Mail", the archaeological
agency "Archaeological Survey of India" (ASI) is concerned about 30
other antiques fraudulently smuggled out of India by Subhash Kapoor. These
include 17th century manuscripts of the Sanskrit epic "Mahabharata",
currently on display in Singapore's Asian Civilizations Museum.
The idol Durga in
Mahishasuramarthini avatar was stolen
from a temple at Pulwama in Kashmir in the 1990s, official sources said. An FIR
was registered in connection with the theft. In 2012, Archaeological Survey of
India (ASI) received a tip-off that the idol was spotted at the Linden Museum,
Stuttgart. Thereafter, the government started the process of getting it back.
Two ASI officials visited Stuttgart for the purpose last year. Armed with the
FIR, which is a crucial evidence that the idol belonged to India, the
government took up the issue with the concerned authorities in Germany.
Germany has since returned the idol – the Durga idol was handed
over by visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Prime Minister Shri Narendra
Modi after their talks here, three years after it was spotted in a museum in
Stuttgart.
Happy reading this.
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
6th Oct 2o15
Source : The Indian Express and http://www.dw.com/en/germany-returns-hindu-statue-to-india/a-18731495
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