Figure of Annapurna (Benares, India, 18th century), artist unknown, stone (photo by Don Hall)
After more than a century, a stolen statue of the Hindu goddess Annapurna is back in India – replaced in Regina by a bag of sand of equivalent weight, a work by the artist who first noticed the obviously female deity was not Vishnu, a supreme god.
The statue, in the University of Regina’s collection at the MacKenzie Art Gallery, was taken from a public shrine on the shore of the Ganges River 108 years ago, at the direction of Norman MacKenzie, the gallery’s namesake, the gallery said this week.
The repatriation process began when Winnipeg artist Divya Mehra learned of the statue on a site visit for her 2020 exhibition From India to Canada and Back to India (There is nothing I can possess which you cannot take away). Mehra pointed out that the statue had been miscatalogued as the Hindu deity Vishnu, and reached out to Siddhartha V. Shah, the curator of South Asian art at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., who identified the statue as Annapurna.
The statue was part of Norman Mackenzie’s 1936 bequest to the University of Regina. When the university's current administration and the MacKenzie Art Gallery were alerted to documentation that revealed it had been stolen, both institutions committed to repatriation.
The statue will be installed in the newly renovated temple, Kashi Vishwanath, on the banks of the Ganges River in Varanasi.
A virtual ceremony was held to officially repatriate Annapurna, with Indian and Canadian officials in attendance.
India’s Union Culture Minister G. Kishan Reddy said, “This Murti (idol) will be taken in a procession to the Kashi Vishwanath temple where the pranaprathista will be performed, thereby reinstating the spiritual and divine grace of Maa Annapurna Devi. Blessed to have the Murti brought back to her rightful place.”
In honour of the repatriation, the MacKenzie will exhibit Mehra’s 2020 sculpture There is nothing you can possess which I cannot take away (Not Vishnu: New ways of Darsána), made to take the place of Annapurna.
The sculpture is a bag of sand purchased at a Hollywood prop store rich in Indiana Jones memorabilia that weighs exactly as much as the statue. It was artificially aged by Mehra, and accessioned last year into the MacKenzie’s permanent collection. The sculpture, known as Not Vishnu for short, is displayed on a film-set-style altar and, when not on view, will be stored in the space left vacant by Annapurna.
“More than just the physical object on display, Mehra’s work is an intervention into both the permanent collection and the narrative surrounding the founding of the MacKenzie Art Gallery,” the gallery says. “It draws attention to the widespread unethical practices that museums are built on, while urging them in a new direction. While Annapurna is no longer housed in the MacKenzie’s vault, her presence will forever be marked with this placeholder signaling a troubling history and a hopeful beacon for a new direction.”
Source: Mackenzie Art Gallery