Aust to return dancing Shiva statue

Australia is preparing to return a dancing Shiva statue that was stolen from an Indian temple and sold to the National Gallery of Australia.

The gallery has removed from display the 900-year-old Shiva Nataraja idol it bought for $5.6 million in 2007 from New York dealer Subhash Kapoor.

Kapoor is facing trial in Chennai, India, for allegedly trafficking stolen antiquities, including that statue, from two Indian temples.

Aaron Freedman, who was a manager at Kapoor's Art of the Past gallery in New York, has confirmed the statue was stolen from a temple at Sripuranthan and has pleaded guilty to six US criminal charges of trading stolen art.

Meanwhile, the Attorney-General's Department in Australia has received a formal request from the Indian government to return the statue.

It says it is working on the request in accordance with a 1970 United Nations convention and the Australian Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986.

National Gallery of Australia council chairman Allan Myers maintains that the usual processes of investigating provenance of the statue were undertaken.