The Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, one of the world’s finest collections of modern and contemporary art, will be auctioning a rare Lord Shiva idol on March 23rd. The rare four-headed stone idol is called ‘Figure of Shiva as Brahma’ and is expected to fetch $3 Million. The idol belongs to the Chola period and is believed to have been created between 10th and 11th century.
The auction is at the Sotheby's.
This blog had reported about the sale way back in November 2006. The statue is part of Sotheby's 80-odd Indian and southeast Asian Works of Art sale.
The 64-inch Lord Shiva idol is sitting on a double-lotus pedestal. Earlier, the idol was misunderstood to be Lord Brahma due to the four head, but a third eye on each forehead of the sculpture helped to identify it as Lord Shiva.
Sadly, so far there has been no attempt from any government or non-government agency in India
There are some Hindus who block the entry of a section of Hindus into temples. There are some Hindus who want to build temples at all odd places. But sadly there are no Hindus to bring back such invaluable treasures of Hinduism.