/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/larazon/TPSJDOB24NGPZLAEMOHIAVTYJM.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1 "The nightmare of art looters")
Search for treasures all over the planet and with increasing success. He speaks enthusiastically of the temples of India, his country: the technical brilliance, the artistic prowess… “Their true magnificence lies in the delightful confluence of devotion, spirituality, art and aesthetics seamlessly woven into the fabric of the worship…”.
He combines his work as an executive in a logistics company in Chennai with the cause that has made him a national hero. Vijay Kumar, 48, hunts down stolen art pieces from India and returns them to his place of origin. His fight against looting began as a “hobby” fifteen years ago. He is now known to both sides of the art market, the good and the bad. “Citizens report thefts (even the oldest ones). Scholars on the right side refer us to susceptible cases. Those on the dark side fear exposure. And more and more collectors are discreetly giving up suspicious objects because of the risk of a bad reputation.”
Vijay Kumar is outraged when talking about stolen works of art. And he has been surprised by how widespread smuggling is throughout the world, because at first he thought that it would only be necessary to investigate pieces in the United Kingdom, the EU and the United States.
None is easy and for him all returns are special. Although some “satisfy him personally: first for the thrill of the chase and later, when a hunch works out.” Vijay Kumar proudly remembers “the case of the Nalanda Buddhas, since it was a robbery that happened in 1961 and everyone had given up.”
Today he works on several important cases, and predicts that, if one of them is returned, “it will be the most expensive returned object in the world.” Although, for him «none have a price, since they were never conceived as art objects to be bought and sold».
With hundreds of headlines and achievements behind him, the Press has nicknamed him “India Jones”, in analogy with the cinema archaeologist. An alias with which, despite the notoriety, Vijay Kumar does not share. And it is that he “hates” every time Harrison Ford states that such a piece “belongs to a museum.” He would prefer it to say ‘belongs to a temple’.
Do you know any suspicious object in Spain? Contact him. Who knows. “Trust me when I tell you that sometimes facts are stranger than fiction,” concludes Vijay Kumar.
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