Chennai: An attempt to auction off an antique idol, which had been stolen from Tamil Nadu about 15 years ago, at a fine arts exhibition in the Netherlands has been thwarted, thanks to timely alert by India and swift action by the Netherlands authorities.The centuries-old bronze idol of Kannappa Nayanar was stolen from the Arulmigu Agneeswarar temple in Tiruppugazhur, Nagapattinam district on Aug 8, 2010. A case was registered at Thittacherry police station under Section 380 of the Indian Penal Code for theft. Despite limited leads at the time, the investigation continued under the watch of Tamil Nadu’s idol wing.The idol was scheduled for auction at the European Fine Arts Exhibition 2025 in the Netherlands in March. It has since been nixed and secured by the ministry of foreign affairs of the Netherlands and is now being repatriated to India.Following a tip -off earlier this year, the then inspector-general of police (idol wing), Pravesh Kumar, alerted authorities in the Netherlands and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) through an official email on March 18, 2025, requesting immediate action to halt the auction.Responding to the alert, Dutch authorities placed the idol under the custody of the ministry of foreign affairs on March 23, 2025. Legal steps have since been initiated by the Indian govt to facilitate the return of the artefact to India, in coordination with the Netherlands.”We were alerted of the bronze surfacing in Tefaf Maastricht art fair by a European dealer , Lynda Albertson of ARCA art crime institute. It is a unique posture of Kannappa Nayanar, and we worked closely with the idol wing to find possible matches. We used our advanced proprietary app developed by the India Pride Project, and the Dutch police were impressed with our technology proof. We are working closely to trace two more bronzes stolen during the same theft,” says India Pride Project co-founder S Vijay Kumar. Tamil Nadu DGP Shankar Jiwal commended the idol wing officials for their timely coordination with national and international agencies.