20 antique artefacts seized from Frenchman's residence in Auroville

CHENNAI: The idol wing CID of the Tamil Nadu police seized twenty antique artefacts from the residence of a French national in Auroville near Puducherry.

The idol wing received information from a source that a shop dealing with handicrafts was illegally dealing with stolen antique artefacts from Tamil Nadu. After ascertaining the veracity of the information, the idol wing obtained an order from a judicial magistrate to search the shop. A team led by inspector R Indira, sub-inspector Balachander and constables Kurmaraja, Levin and Prasanna, conducted searches in the shop on September 11 and seized documents related to 20 artefacts.
The documents showed that a dealer had tried to help the French national smuggle the artefacts to France by obtaining clearance from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). These documents also contained the address of the French national. The police searched his residence in Auroville and seized 20 artefacts. The man was in France during the searches.
The seized artefacts include a dancing apsara statue, Ganesha idols of various sizes, a Lord Ayyappan idol, a Nandhi idol, a peacock lamp, and Hanuman idol and others.