On 11th March 2021, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (part of the University of Oxford) announced that it would return the 16th-century bronze Murthi of Thirumangai Alvar that it had on display. The Murthi was purchased by the Museum from Sotheby’s auction house in 1967 for £850. In 2019 Vijay Kumar from India Pride Project, wrote to the museum to question the provenance (record of origin) of this Murthi after finding a photograph from 1957 of the same murthi installed at Sri Soundararaja Perumal (Vishnu) Temple near Kumbakonam (Tamil Nadu). Following a claim from the Indian High Commission (London) and investigations by the museum in collaboration with experts in India, it has been decided to return the murthi.
Thirumangai is counted amongst the 12 Alvars, mystics who composed Tamil devotional poetry that inspired the revival of Vaishnavism in Southern Bharat between 5th-9th centuries. Murthies of Thirumangai and the other Alvars are installed in the Vishnu temples across Tamil Nadu, where their hymns are recited daily. The Hindu and Jain temples of Tamil Nadu are a frequent target of theft as they are home to centuries-old bronze cast murthies that are lucrative commodities in the illegal antique trade. Cases of theft often go unnoticed as these antique murthies are replaced with replicas; which was the case with this murthi at Oxford. Vijay Kumar has identified murthies of Vishnu, Krishna and Lakshmi that are in Museums and Auction houses in the USA which are likely to have also been stolen from the same temple.