Khajuraho’s ‘Parrot Lady’ set to return in a month

Bhopal: The majestic “Parrot Lady,” the 12th century stone sculpture of a voluptuous, scantily clad woman conversing with a parrot, is all set to return to its original abode in Khajurao, a tourist hub of Madhya Pradesh, known for temples associated with erotic art.

The three-ft-long exquisitely carved sculpture has been retrieved in Canada in 2015 by the local government agency dealing with trafficked antiquities from a Canadian art collector and later handed over to prime minister Narendra Modi by his Canadian counterpart.

“The art piece will set out for home journey within a month. The newly built museum of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) at Khajuaro is ready for the display of the art piece of grandeur,” an ASI spokesperson told this newspaper here on Monday. The journey of “Parrot Lady” to Canada has still remained a mystery. ASI director (antiquity) D.N. Dimri on phone from Delhi had said, “There is no report of theft of the sculpture from Khajurao temples. But, the architectural style and the material of the artefact, famously known as ‘Parrot Lady’, clearly suggest that the sculpture belonged to Khajurao group of temples.” “We are still in dark about passage of the art piece from Khajurao to Canada. All we know is that the statue was trafficked from Delhi to Toronto and then to Ottawa in Canada in 2011,” he had said. The 900-year-old sculpture was found in possession of a 60-year-old Canadian woman Patricia Burns without proper documentation. The art collector reportedly bought the sculpture from an American on eBay for $3818.59. Some historians were of the firm view that the “Parrot Lady” may be the same “Queen of Khajurao,” the majestic ‘Abhisarika” or cupid-struck lady engaged in conversation with her pet ‘shuka’ or parrot standing in an elegant posture, as narrated in local folklores.