Sripuranthan Natarajan Idol

[3] The Udayarpalayam taluk of the Ariyalur District, in Tamil Nadu, India has nearly 463 ancient temples, of which 200 belong to the Chola period dated 9th to 10th century AD.

Following accusations of illegal dealing, Kapoor's gallery was raided by Homeland Security and stolen artwork worth $100 million was seized.

As of 2016, he is lodged at the Puzhal Central Prison in Tamil Nadu, India,[5] facing charges for criminal conspiracy to steal antique idols, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years.

[6][7][8] According to the art investigative website, Chasing Aphrodite, Kapoor traveled to India and met Sanjivi Asokan, a kingpin of a ring of idol thieves.

In 2006, thieves were hired for US$12,000 to steal eight idols — Nataraja and Uma Mashewari, Vinayagar, Devi, Deepalaksmi, Chandrashekarar, Sampanthar and Krishnar — from the dilapidated Brihadeeswarar temple at Sripuranthan.

The theft occurred on three occasions starting in January 2006, with the thieves carefully gluing back the lock, using a lorry (truck) parked on the dry river bed behind the temple as the getaway vehicle.

In 2008, the NGA, under Ron Radford, director and Robyn Maxwell, senior curator Asian art, acquired the dancing Shiva from Subhash Kapoor.

[7][14][15] The investigative website Chasing Aphrodite was the first to expose that the Shiva idol acquired by the NGA was a stolen artwork from Southern India.

This stand was criticised by the Australian media, with Duncan Chappell, criminology expert from University of Sydney, calling it inappropriate and an international embarrassment.

The Nataraja idol was then moved to Chennai and stored in the safe room of the Archaeological Survey of India office at Fort St. George, before being produced before the judicial magistrates of Jayankondam and Vridhachalam.

However, officials made it clear that the statue would be displayed at the government museum at Kumbakonam and will be brought into Sripuranthan for annual festivities.

The Linden Museum in Germany returned to the Indian government a 9th-century AD idol of Mahishasuramardini, stolen from Pulwama district in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1990s, which had been acquired from Kapoor.

The Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio returned four artifacts acquired from Kapoor, including the Vinayagar statue stolen from Sripuranthan.

[30] In June 2016, the United States returned nearly 200 antiques to the Indian Government, in the presence of the visiting Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi at Washington DC.