The Idol Thief
  • The Idol Thief
    Inside one of the biggest antiquities-smuggling rings in history.

    http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/07/070507fa_fact_keefe?
    currentPage=1


    ......................Then Superintendent Shrivastava and his men
    searched the house, spending hours rummaging through the elegant
    rooms. Behind the wood panelling of Ghiya’s private study, the
    officers discovered a set of secret cupboards, which held hundreds
    of photographs of ancient Indian sculptures: graceful stone figures
    of the deities Vishnu, Shiva, and Parvati and Parvati’s elephant-
    headed son, Ganesha; Jain Tirthankaras and Chola bronzes; dancing
    goddesses with many arms and melon breasts, festooned with
    delicately rendered ornaments. The photographs were color snapshots,
    and the objects pictured sat outdoors, in patches of grass or mud.
    Many evidently had been roughly pried away from temple walls and
    were missing limbs or heads. The police also discovered sixty-eight
    glossy auction catalogues from Sotheby’s and Christie’s in London
    and New York.................
  • Dear VJ
    Sad but true...

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