14 more antique artefacts recovered from house in RA Puram

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Idol Wing-CID recovered 14 antique artefacts from a house in Raja Annamalaipuram in Chennai on Sunday. The articles include four metal idols, six Tanjore paintings and four wooden artefacts.

Sunday's raid was the fourth one in the same house since December 2022 by the Idol wing team and so far they had seized 86 antique in instalment basis.

Shoba Durairajan, the owner of the house was an idol collector and she bought these idols from an art dealer late Dheenadhayalan of the Aparna Art Gallery at Alwarpet between the year 2008 and 2015.

The police said that the owner of the house is Shoba Durairajan who lives abroad and only her elderly father and driver live at the house. In December last year, police visited the house for the first time and recovered seven antique idols. In April, 55 idols were recovered from the house.

According to the Idol wing officials in December and April, they had recovered idols from various parts of the house such as the living room, garden and other places. "During that time, we found one of the rooms to be locked. When inquired, it was found that there were many antique artefacts in that room too. We then gave her time to hand over them herself failing which the lock would be broken with a court order. On Sunday, the key to the room was handed over through the driver. We then went inside the room and found these artefacts," official said.

The police said that investigations are on to trace the origins of these artefacts. Further probe is on.