The Idol Wing CID has traced a bronze idol of Thirumangai Azhvar, which went missing from a temple in Kumbakonam 60 years ago, to a museum in London. Abhay Kumar Singh, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Idol Wing CID, told The Hindu, “The idol has been missing from the Soundararaja Perumal temple in Sundaraperumal kovil village near Kumbakonam since the 1960s. London, after verifying the documentation of Hindu idols by the French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP). The picture of the Thirumangai Azhvar idol, which was taken in 1957, matches with the idol kept in the museum.” The Ashmolean Museum, which is part of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, had purchased the idol in 1967 from an auction house for about $2,340.
