Two 10th-century stone idols that were stolen from a temple in India have been found in an English woman’s garden shed. They will be officially returned to the Indian government at a special handover ceremony at the Indian High Commission in London on August 15, India’s Independence Day.
The carvings depict Yogini Camunda and Yogini Gomukhi, two female deities who were looted between 1979 and 1982 from a temple in the village of Lokhari in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. According to India time, and were easy to steal as these types of idols are traditionally not locked away.
The pair of yoginis were salvaged in March after an Englishwoman wholesaled the contents of her garden shed to a salvage company, which originally planned to sell the statues but first decided to investigate their origin. They were quickly referred to Chris Marinello, an American lawyer who founded Art Recovery International in London in 2013 to help locate stolen artwork.
A page of Yogini worship and temples: a tantric tradition by Vidya Dehejia recording the two yoginis as decorations on a temple in Lokhari, India. Photo courtesy of Art Recovery International.
Marinello collaborated with S Vijay Kumar, co-founder of the India Pride project, who was able to identify the two yoginis. They corresponded to the images which had recorded them at the temple of Lokhari in Yogini worship and temples: a tantric tradition by Vidya Dehejia, a study of these sacred objects which generally represent female deities and are associated with Tantric worship. They are usually worshiped as part of a large group, most often of 64 yoginis.
“The Lokhari temple is in ruins, with only a few yoginis broken now,” India Pride Project’s Kumar told the India time. “Each yogini has specific rituals associated with them. They are not practiced much these days because so many yoginis have passed away, so these are the last remnants of a particular form of esoteric worship. If the site became secure , it would be a major tourist site and the whole village could prosper.
Fortunately, the couple could soon reunite with members of their original group. In 2021, another goat-headed idol was found in the garden of another English woman as she prepared to sell her house. Another ram-headed yogini from the same temple was also found in Paris in 2013. Both are now in the National Museum in New Delhi, where the last two finds are also likely to be found.
“It is plausible that the original owners realized they had been looted once they tried to sell them,” Christopher Marinello told Artnet News, mentioning that this had been the case for the yogini who surfaced in 2021. “Rather than cooperating to return them, they could have just tried to hide them to avoid legal issues.
He also praised the salvage company’s due diligence. “Some dealerships don’t want headaches and that’s just not true. The salvage society in this case was a prominent member of the arts community who was willing to put morality above profit.
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