Bronze idol of Chola queen traced to Washington museum

Chennai: A three-and-a-half feet idol of Chola queen Sembiyan Mahadevi, stolen from a temple in Tamil Nadu’s Nagapattinam in 1929, has been traced to the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington DC, USA, by the Idol Wing police, which has initiated steps to retrieve the idol.

The exquisite bronze idol was purchased by the Freer Gallery of Art from Hagop Kevorkian in New York in 1929 for an undisclosed price, said K Jayanth Murali, Director-General of Police.

Kevorkian died in 1962. From whom and how much and how he acquired the idol is still a matter of investigation, the DGP added.