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A Nepalese artefact at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) that is alleged to have been stolen was acquired through the National Heritage Board's (NHB's) established procedures, a museum spokesman said on Wednesday.
He added that the museum was aware of media reports claiming that the religious artwork depicting the Hindu deity Shiva had been looted.
"The object in the reports is a copper Cover Of A Linga, which was acquired by ACM in 2015 in accordance with the NHB's established procedures on acquisition.
"These procedures include evaluation by ACM's acquisition committee made up of external experts, as well as rigorous provenance checks carried out at the time of purchase, which are also benchmarked against international practices and regularly reviewed."
The ACM noted that the object is not listed in the Art Loss Register, which is the world's largest private database on stolen art.
Allegations that the artwork had been stolen in 1999 and traced to the ACM first surfaced on Facebook page Lost Arts of Nepal on Aug 14. It claimed the artefact in the museum is one of four images of gods stolen from Pharping, a town on the edge of Kathmandu.
The post claimed the missing four artefacts were used in religious rites involving seven deities before they were stolen, and the ritual has since been conducted using replicas.
The Straits Times
