University of Regina sending stolen statue home to India

It sounds like something out of an Indiana Jones movie.

A statue from the University of Regina’s collection housed at the MacKenzie Art Gallery is being returned to India, where it was stolen more than a century ago.

A virtual repatriation ceremony was held Thursday for the statue of Annapoorna, the goddess of food and the queen of the city of Varanasi. The Zoom ceremony featured U of R interim president Dr. Thomas Chase and Ajay Bisaria, the High Commissioner of India, as well as other dignitaries.

In a media release, the U of R said the statue was part of a bequest in 1936 by Norman MacKenzie, the gallery’s namesake. While preparing for an upcoming exhibit at the gallery, artist Divya Mehra went through MacKenzie’s collection and saw the statue.

“When Mehra researched the story behind the statue, she found that MacKenzie had noticed the statue while on a trip to India in 1913,” the release said. “A stranger had overheard MacKenzie’s desire to have the statue, and stole it for him from its original location — a shrine at stone steps on the riverbank of the Ganges at Varanasi, India.”

When the university and the MacKenzie Art Gallery heard the details of the story, they started making arrangements to return the statue to India.

“As a university we have a responsibility to right historical wrongs and help overcome the damaging legacy of colonialism wherever possible,” Chase said in the release. “Repatriating this statue does not atone for the wrong that was done a century ago, but it is an appropriate and important act today.

“I am thankful to the MacKenzie Art Gallery, the Indian High Commission, and the Department of Canadian Heritage for their roles in making it possible.”

“We are delighted that this unique statue of Annapoorna is on her way home,” Bisaria added. “I am grateful to the University of Regina for their proactive engagement for the return of this cultural icon to India. The move to voluntarily repatriate such cultural treasures shows the maturity and depth of India-Canada relations.”

According to the release, the university will review the history of all of the pieces of art in its care to ensure they don’t have similar stories to that of the statue of Annapoorna.