’Antique’ article owner pleads ignorance about rules

’Antique’ article owner pleads ignorance about rules

www.mangaloretoday.com

Mangalore, April 7, 2011: A four-foot high metal idol of Nataraj, estimated at Rs. 3 crore if truly antique, is in the custody of the Urwa police.

Sub-inspector P. Suresh said the idol, along with two swords with embellished hilts and six gold coins, were handed over to the police by M.B. Gadiyar, a resident of the Hathills area of the city. He said the police had been given custody of the articles after producing them in court. Although he could not specify under which law it was, Mr. Suresh said articles which were more than 100 years old must be declared before the Archaeological Survey of India.

 

 

 

 

According to Mr. Suresh, Mr. Gadiyar had been looking to sell these articles and the prospective buyer who was also from Mangalore, had approached the police with this information.

On enquiring, the police found that Mr. Gadiyar indeed had these articles in his possession but was not aware of the law.

Officials of the ASI would examine these articles to determine their value and genuineness, he said and based on their report, action would be taken. Both swords together were estimated to be worth Rs. 75 lakh and the coins weigh 50 grams.
One of the swords appeared to have a hilt made of ivory and the other had green stones embedded on the hilt, one of which came unstuck at the police station.
One coin was convex and had depictions of people on either side.

It had inscriptions in Devanagri script. Another coin was less than a centimetre in diameter, but had an aesthetically engraved image of an elephant on one side and other markings on the reverse side.

Two words in Devanagri script appeared to be engraved on a third coin along with other markings.

One of the six gold coins was issued by Turks and Caoicos Islands in 1974 in commemoration of Winston Churchill’s centenary. The islands were a part of the British Overseas Territory. Another was a French coin dated 1868 bearing the impression of Napoleon III, while the last had the image of a woman with the words “Victoria D:G : Britanniar:REG:F:D” engraved on it.

Courtesy: The Hindu, Mangalore