Oxford University to return bronze sculpture of Hindu saint to India

LONDON (AP) — Oxford University has agreed to return a 500-year-old bronze sculpture of a Hindu saint to India. The university’s Ashmolean Museum says the Indian High Commission in the U.K. had made a claim four years ago for the bronze figure of Tirumankai Alvar that was allegedly looted from a temple. The Ashmolean says it had reached out to the Indian High Commission in 2019 after research from photo archives showed the bronze in a temple in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu in 1957. It bought the piece at auction in 1967. The museum says the university’s council approved the transfer in March.