On 5 December 2013, as Australia shut down for Christmas, the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) posted a statement on its website acknowledging that the Chola-period Shiva Nataraja was among items alleged to have been illegally exported from India.
It is uncanny, that almost within days of that initial news – which was to change the landscape of provenance and repatriation internationally – the NGA has again released a statement to the media. This time a good news story.