Recovery of stolen 'Maher Buddha' sculpture

Telegraph, 1st December, 2014

Photographic documentationof undocumented ancient sculptures in villages of
Bihar is being done under the 'Mapping of Nalanda, Rajgir and around'
Project. The project by Nava Nalanda Mahavihara (NNM, Deemed University),
Nalanda has finally begun to pay dividends. The three and half feet Buddha
sculpture stolen from the village Maher, Gaya district in the first week of May,
2014 has been finally traced from a nearby village. The Maher sculpture of
the Buddha was already documented by NNM. The documentation of the
sculpture by NNM facilitated an effective FIR with the police and also helped
in flashing the news of the theft in Newspapers and Internet.
Within fifteen days of the theft, all the information regarding the Maher
sculpture was reported to Art Loss Register (ALR), a London based agency
that helps to spot stolen artefacts by tracking sales and auctions of artefacts
in the international market.

Recovered Maher Buddha kept at the police station. Shall be replaced in

village (Maher) soon.
In recent years dealers, museums, collectors, insurance companies, all who
consider acquiring or investing in art and artefacts, are expected to inquire
about the origins of the objects they buy to make sure the objects are not
stolen ones. Preliminary investigation by the police suggests that the
group who had stolen the Buddha image were finding it difficult to
sell it off in international grey market. Probably, because the matter
was reported to ALR and highlighted on internet and print media, no
buyers in the international grey market came forward to invest in
the Maher Buddha sculpture. The thieves, to falsely implicate a
political rival abandoned the 'Maher Buddha' in his agriculture field
and reported the matter to police. Further investigation will reveal the
whole story.
NNM in 2010 initiated the Engaged Buddhism platform to identify heritage
volunteers and sensitize them towards the rich Buddhist heritage scattered in
the heritage villages of Bihar. Vijay Sao and Raju Choudhary from Maher are
associated with the Engaged Buddhism initiative of NNM. They have created
awareness among the villagers towards the rich legacy that the village
(Maher) is bestowed with. Villagers have come together and contributing to
make a permanent shed to house the scattered sculptures in the village.

The single largest issue that threatens the heritage of Bihar is the enormous
volume of undocumented historical and cultural artefacts scattered across
the villages. There is no comprehensive list, either official or unofficial,
providing a village-wise inventory and photographic documentation of the
artefacts. Incidents of artefact theft are rarely reported by villagers to the
government authorities, and even when they are reported, it is of little
consequence because there is no documentary evidence of the stolen
artefact to support the claim of theft. These stolen artefacts do not get
featured even in web-based artefacts tracking databases because of lack of
documentation. If the stolen artefacts are not reported on web-based
databases, there is no way museums, collectors, and auction houses in
market countries interested in buying ethical, legal artefacts can verify if
the artefact has been stolen from Bihar.
NNM under its Mapping Project has initiated the task of documenting the
scattered sculptures in the villages of Bihar and to create a village based
album of artefacts to check further smuggling of sacred sculptures from
Bihar.