INTERPOL aid to be sought to get back stolen idol

Madras, May 31: The Tamil Nadu police have proposed to seek the good offices of the INTERPOL to get back the stolen Sivapuram Nataraja idol which has now been located in the United States. Disclosing this to newsmen to-day, the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. F.V. Arul, said he would be leaving for Paris to-morrow to attend the INTERPOL conference where he would take up the matter with the international organisation. The Police had already requested the State Government to move the Government of India to approach the U.S. Government for getting back the idol, he said. On two earlier occasions, he recalled, the United States had restored smuggled art treasures to the countries of their origin. Mr. Arul pointed out that Mr. Norton Simon, who acquired the idol for one million dollars (Rs. 75 lakhs), had already expressed his willingness (in a press statement) to return the idol if the Government of India could guarantee that art treasures were not smuggled out of the country in future. The 110 cm. tall bronze idol stolen from the Sivapuram temple in Thanjavur District now forms part of the art collections of the American millionaire, Mr. Norton Simon.