Another 37 idols seized from art dealer's house

Chennai: In continuing raids at the house of 85-year-old art dealer Deenadhayalan on Murrays Gate Road in Alwarpet, police on Thursday seized 37 more idols and 47 Tanjore paintings and wooden artefacts.
Archaeologist R Nagasamy, who accompanied the sleuths, told them the seized idols were at least 1,600 years old.
On Tuesday, police had seized from the house 57 ancient idols smuggled from across the state and neighbouring Karnataka.One room at the bungalow remained locked.
On Thursday, armed with a search warrant from the 10th metropolitan magistrate court in Egmore, the idol wing police searched the room.
A few idols sculpted together were found separated. "There is one more room to be searched for which we have sought a search warrant. We suspect the room contains some panchaloha idols," said a senior police officer.
The idol wing team has served summons, asking the the octogenarian Deenadhayalan, to appear before it. Only his arrest will help reveal the place from where the idols were stolen, police said.
Three of his aides, who were packing the idols to be sent to Mumbai as genuine art works, are now in jail.
Deenadhayalan reportedly played a key role in smuggling an Ardhanarishwarar stone idol from Virudhagereeswarar temple in Vriddhachalam. In 2004, notorious art thief Subash Chandra Kapoor, now in jail, sold it for $3 million to Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia.
The seized idols will be kept at the Icon Centre run by the state HR and CE department in Thiruvottiyur.