The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA) will repatriate three bronze sculptures of Hindu gods and their followers to the Indian government. Dating back hundreds of years, the sculptures had been stolen from Tamil temples and smuggled out of India in the mid-20th century, leaving murky provenance records before the Smithsonian's acquisition. The museum said that one of the three bronzes, “Shiva Nataraja” (Chola dynasty, c. 990 CE), will remain at the NMAA for an ongoing exhibition in a long-term loan agreement, sparking questions about the Indian government’s capacity to make decisions on what is technically the religious property of the temple of origin. “It's a well-settled matter that bronzes are property of the temple,” India Pride Project co-founder Vijay Kumar told Hyperallergic, noting that the casts are considered living gods. “So the Government of India has no ownership over them to offer [as a] long-term loan. The ‘Nataraja’ was stolen from the Tirutturaipoondi ...