Goat-headed elf statue stolen in the 80s returned to India from London
A 10th century stone statue of a goat-headed elf was handed over to India by the High Commission of India, London today, on the occasion of Makar Sankranti. The HCI announced the recovery and repatriation of an illegally removed idol from a temple in Lokhri, Banda, Uttar Pradesh. The theft happened somewhere in the 1980s.
The goat-headed Yogini idol was carved in sandstone and belonged to a group of stone deities installed in the Lokhri temple. These were the subject of study by Indian scholar Vidya Dhejia on behalf of the National Museum in New Delhi in the year 1986.
The study was later published under the title ‘Yogini Cult and Temples: A Tantric Tradition’.
In October 2021, the HCI received information about the discovery of a goat-headed Yogi idol, which matched the description of the idol that was stolen from Lokhri in the 80s. The statue is said to have been found in the garden of a private residence in London.
Notably, another similar idol of Buffalo-headed Vrishan Yogini was stolen from the same temple in Lokhri and recovered by India in the year 2013. It was brought back by the Indian Embassy in Paris.
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