Search for Sarsu Tārā Sculpture

A statue of the Buddhist deity Tārā (110 cm X 45 cm X 20 cm) was stolen from village Sarsu (Gaya District, Bihar, India) in September 2007. The matter was reported to the police but the sculpture could not be traced. It is almost nine years since the statue was stolen and by now it must have reached some museum in Asia, Europe or USA. Due to lack of awareness the matter was not reported at international agencies tracking the stolen artefacts.

                        The stolen sculpture of Buddhist deity Tārā. 

Now we are making efforts to track the statue. The statue has been reported at the Art Loss Register. The people who have stolen the statue by now must have prepared a provenance dating before 1970 to qualify for the 1970 Rule i.e. this statue of Tārā was out of its find spot (Sarsu) before 1970. But we have sufficient evidence to prove that this statue was in the village till 2007 hence if we are successful in locating the statue we may claim its repatriation.  We have a picture of the statue from the find spot i.e. the village collective at village Sarsu in Gaya District. The statue of Tārā is also published in the Journal Manavkij (Published in 2014).

ART LOSS REGISTER Registration No. R00008510

We request all the concerned people who are working nationally and internationally on tracking the stolen artefacts to spread the word and help us track this wonderful piece of statue that belongs to Bihar. 

Statue at its find spot, before it was stolen

The wall after the statue was stolen

Sarsu village

News in the Telegraph , Patna edition

Online link of the Telegraph News