BALURGHAT: Around 111 antique idols that were kept in a house in Gangarampur's Shibbari were recovered by a group of officials led by the supervising officer of Balurghat district museum Abhik Kumar Das on Friday.
The idols were preserved in Balurghat museum immediately after the recovery. Preliminary investigation revealed that the idols were made in Pala, Sena and Gupta dynasties and have immense historical importance.
Speaking to Millennium Post, Das said: "We have recovered 111 antique idols and artefacts from the house of one Ashok Nandi, a local inhabitant of Shibbari. We had specific information that he had preserved the huge number of idols in his residence and asked him to hand them over to us through a letter but he didn't pay heed to our message. Recently he died and we again approached his son Archit Nandi and he agreed to handover the idols and artefacts to the Balurghat district museum authority."Das said Nandi had earlier preserved the antique idols and artefacts in a structure in his residence.
"It was risky to keep the valuable deities of different eras like Gupta, Pala and Sena in one's residence without proper security measures. We recovered the idols and artefacts on Friday and preserved them in the museum," he said.
According to him, the idols and artefacts will be preserved in a new building at the museum later. "A fund of Rs 3 crore has been sanctioned for the new building. We will preserve the items there in a new gallery that will be named as Ashok Nandi Memorial Gallery in order to show tribute to him," he added.