An 8th CE statue of Buddha in Abhayamudrā (gesture
of fearlessness) stolen from mahant compound (Brahmanical Monastery), Bodhgayā somewhere between February 1987 and February-March 1989 will be soon brought
back to Bodhgayā and will be placed in Bodhgayā Museum. Probably, this is the
first time in Bihār, where a stolen sculpture from this state, is returning
back from a foreign country to its find spot. Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Debala Mitra, former Director
General, Archaeological Survey of India (1975- 83) that this stolen statue has been
returned by the Metropolitan Museum, New York and is presently lying
at Central Antiquity Collection Section, Archaeological Survey of India, Purana Quila, New Delhi.
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| The Buddha statue published in Catalogue pf Metropolitan Museum, New York |
The story goes back to February 1987 when Dr Mitra on her visit to Bodhgayā had seen this statue of Buddha in the premises of Maṭha (mahant compound). In her next visit to Bodhgayā in March 1989, she found the same statue missing. Dr. Mitra discovered that the Maṭha people had not reported the theft to the local police. One of the friends of Dr. Mitra drew her attention to image of standing Buddha figure in published in catalogue Arts of South and South-East Asia (Lerner, Martin and Kossak, Steven, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1994, Fig. 30, Accession No. 1990.115). Dr. Mitra after comparing her own records with the details published in the catalogue concluded that the Buddha image published in catalogue was the same statue of the Buddha that had gone missing from Bodhgayā Maṭha. She reported the matter to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on 4-5-1990. ASI noticed that the statue was registered by Shri Shatanand Giri of Bodhgayā Maṭha on 4-10-1976 vide registration no. GYA/ BH/68/. Once it was ascertained that it was same sculpture that was missing from Maṭha, the ASI reported the matter to the Indian Embassy, New York. The Embassy after an enquiry with the Metropolitan Museum confirmed that it was the same statue. The Metropolitan Museum agreed to return the statue without any compensation. The statue was collected from Metropolitan Museum by ASI on 23-3-1999.
