It was placed in October 2021 by Christopher Marinello, an attorney and founder of Art Recovery International, a company dedicated to recovering stolen, looted and missing artworks.
Marinello said he came across the statue when a widow in the UK, whom he refuses to identify, asked his company to help sell her furniture – including a yogini.
Marinello told CNN: “This item has raised a red flag.
Marinello said the widow was “ignorant” and shocked that the statue had previously been stolen, but cooperated when she found out.
Marinello then contacted Vijay Kumar, the co-founder of the Pride of India Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to recovering looted cultural objects across India.
“I started this basically as a nonprofit to raise awareness about the rampant looting of cultural objects,” Kumar told CNN.
An image of a goat-headed statue appears in Dehejia’s book, where she writes, “Atop an isolated hill in the Banda district of Uttar Pradesh, near the village of Lokhari, are twenty images of Yoginis along with a block Massive amount of stone blocks that once formed the wall of a Yogini temple.
“Villagers report that in recent years some images have been carried away in vans by vandals,” she wrote.
“This is a very rare symbol,” Kumar said.
The yogini statue dates from the 8th to 9th centuries. Credit: International Art Restoration Calendar
He said he first saw the photograph of the yogini statue in Peter Watson’s book “Sotheby’s: The Inside Story”, based on a five-year investigation that revealed how prestigious auction houses were misled. allegedly facilitated the smuggling and sale of items known to have been looted from the temples.
After further research, Kumar said the statue was listed for sale in a Sotheby’s catalog in 1988 with an auction value of $19,849 (£15,000).
Speaking of the statue, Kumar said, “She’s in a very bad state of preservation, but we were able to put it together.”
“We understand it was sold to Sotheby’s, but it was never investigated,” he added.
Marinello told CNN that he and Kumar worked with the High Commissioner of India, the Archaeological Survey of India, the Directorate General of Revenue Intelligence and the London Metropolitan Police to allow the statue to be repatriated.
“We contacted Vijay and Christopher a few months ago and then the High Commissioner of India vigorously pursued the replacement of Yogini with all the efforts of the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom and the Deputy High Commissioner to do the formalities are over,” Jaspreet Singh Sukhija, First Secretary for Trade at the High Commission of India, told CNN in a statement.
“We are currently on the last leg of the replacement and soon the yogini will be handed over to the High Commission of India in London and then sent to its correct location in India. I would also like to acknowledge the Appreciate the Revenue Administration, India for help,” added Sukhija.
In a statement to CNN, Sotheby’s did not specifically mention the statue but said it operates to the highest standards. “This episode relates to an incident that is believed to have happened nearly a quarter of a century ago. Sotheby’s adheres to the highest standards in the industry, supported by a world-class compliance team who do Working closely with external agencies to ensure that we operate at the highest level of business integrity,” the company said.
‘We hope to make them gods like themselves’
“What motivates me is the cultural legacy and loss that communities, churches and temples use to help them connect with their god,” he said.
“In cases like this, when something is stolen from a temple, it just means more to the people of the village and those who worship the object,” he added.
Marinello says his firm has recovered thousands of works of art since it was founded in 2013, with an estimated value of nearly $529 million (£400 million).
He said his company continues to receive art theft cases on a daily basis.
“Criminals are looking to take things that don’t belong to them and sell them. If people, art collectors and dealers, exercise proper accountability before disposing of such objects. hey, they’ll never get into the market and won’t say Marinello.
“This is why I work with organizations like the Pride of India Project because it’s not a sculpture… for dealers or auction houses to profit from. These are the gods. These are the things that help people worship their gods. You can’t put a monetary value on this,” he added.
Speaking of objects like the yogini, Kumar told CNN, “They are never meant to be a work of art. They are considered ceremonial objects of worship, we treat them as a work of art. random artwork.
“So we hope to make them gods like themselves,” he added.
CNN has reached out to the Metropolitan Police for comment.
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