Story of Vijay Kumar’s campaign: Vijay has been tracking the artefacts stolen from the country and taken abroad for 16 years, got success in bringing back more than 200

Vijay Kumar of Chennai also contributed in the sculptures and artifacts that PM Modi brought from America.

PM Narendra Modi, who recently visited America, brought with him 157 historical and valuable idols and artifacts of God. After this Vijay Kumar of Chennai came into the discussion. Vijay is the person who has been tracking those artistic things for the last 16 years which were stolen or smuggled out of the country and were sold in the international market. Read the story of his campaign to bring India’s ‘proud’ back to the country, in his own words…

‘I have been interested in history since childhood. So, despite being GM in the shipping company, it started documenting the country’s heritage from 2006 onwards. He used to blog and write about them on various forums under the India Pride Project (IPP). In 2008, I came to know that not only Tamil Nadu, but a large part of the country’s artistic heritage has gone out. While traveling in many countries of the world, it was seen that many artifacts missing from the temples and important places of the country were kept for sale in museums and auction houses abroad. Shocked to see.

So many important things had gone out of the country for the sake of a few rupees. I have been working against organized mafia since 2008 in association with Interpol to bring back these creations. New York-based art dealer Subhash Kapoor was arrested because of this. I helped bring back many prized sculptures from the 11th and 12th centuries.

My team at IPP tracks the stolen idols and also provides evidence to the enforcement agencies to bring them back. Half of the artifacts recently brought to the country are of cultural importance. These include a one-and-a-half meter tall panel of Revanth made of sandstone in the 10th century to a bronze statue of Nataraja in the 12th century. We still have more work to do. If you look at the CAG report, from 1947 to 2000, only 19 artifacts were returned from abroad. While none between 2000 and 2012. After knowing this, we did a lot of background work.

International enforcement agencies also started taking us seriously. We have done a lot of restaurant since 2013. Since then 200 artifacts have been brought back. Of these, the IPP contributes to bringing in or reporting to enforcement agencies. The team members are passionate about Indian art. They identify sculptures kept in auction houses by searching old catalogs. They get involved in matching the idols stolen from its temples and important places.’ – Vijay Kumar