India wants Parrot Lady: A 12th century Khajuraho sculpture that was stolen and landed in Canada

Parrot Lady is a life sized 12th century Khajuraho sculpture which vanished from India only to reappear in Canada

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The mystery behind “Parrot Lady” and her trail from Khajuraho to Canada The News Minute| July 23, 2014| 11.40 pm IST A mysterious case of an art theft that went unreported is coming to haunt the Archeological Survey of India. Scattered news reports which appeared in the Canadian media over the past few days talk about a sculpture, which is being called by the name- “Parrot Lady”. Parrot Lady is a life sized 12th century Khajuraho sculpture which vanished from India only to reappear in Canada, in the Department of Canadian Heritage, in Edmonton. Reports say that nobody knows when it was stolen, how it got to Canada, and in fact the sculpture was never reported to be missing. Canadian newspaper Calgary Herald says that right now India is trying to get back the parrot lady, which it describes as a “voluptuous 12th century statue of a woman with a parrot on her bareback” made of sandstone. The art piece has been in the possession of the Canadian Heritage Department since 2011, reports say. Though it is thought to be stolen from India, as many experts instantly recognize the art work to be from Khajuraho, the Canadian authorities are now facing a legal blockade in returning the art piece to India. Reason? India has nothing to prove that it owns the parrot lady or that it was ever stolen from India. A report in Economic Times says that now a picture of the statue, Parrot Lady, is being circulated among all offices of the Archeological Survey of India. But no one knows where it was kept or when it was stolen. An enquiry is going on at present on the matter since it is a case of trafficking of cultural heritage property. The Calgary Herald said that according to the Indian High Commission in Ottawa, the ASI has confirmed that the sculpture is of Indian origin. The Commission has sent a written request to the Department of Canadian Heritage to hand over the sculpture to India. It also reported that the Canadian Heritage Department’s spokesperson Mahtab Farahani said that “Canada would seek to return cultural property belonging to another state under the rules of the 1977 Cultural Property Export and Import Act”. The problem for India now is that the act does not require the country to prove ownership, but it should have records to show that the “cultural property” was exported from the country illegally. Interestingly, the Canadian officials say that in 2011, when the statue came into their possession they wrote to the Indian High Commission in Ottawa about the same. But it took more than three years for the Commission to forward the message to India. Canada has not revealed how the sculpture came into their possession. A spokesperson for Canada Border Security Agency was quoted by the Calgary Herald as saying that this cannot be revealed due to “privacy laws”. The sculpture is thought to be from Khajuraho, a temple city that was built by the Chandella dynasty that is situated near New Delhi. Chandella rulers promoted various Tantric doctrines and sculptors during their time. Artifacts that were produced during the time are of much demand in the international art market.

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