Tug of war over stolen lion in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO: A male lion named Rawell is at the center of an ownership dispute in Brazil after the creature was abducted from his sanctuary and surfaced later hundreds of kilometers away.

The 300 kilo (650 pound) feline was knocked unconscious Thursday with a tranquilizer dart and spirited away from the Monte Azul Paulista sanctuary in Sao Paulo state, local media reported.

On Saturday, Folha de Sao Paulo and Globo dailies reported on their websites that Rawell was found in a shelter some 500 kilometers (312 miles) away at Maringa, in neighboring Parana state.

The site belongs to Rawell´s former owner, Ary Marcos Borges da Silva.

Oswaldo Garcia, who has cared for the nine-year-old creature for the past five years at Monte Azul, said the day Rawell went missing he found its cage damaged and the lion gone.

The animal was "like a son to me," Garcia told Globo television.

Da Silva´s lawyer told Folha that his client had tried unsuccessfully to take the animal back some months ago, and had now "tried to resolve the situation in his own way."

Police detained one worker at the site where Rawell was found for initially refusing to allow police access to the site, Globo reported.

Police delegate Leandro Roque said that Garcia and Da Silva were now disputing ownership.

A Sao Paulo police official told Globo that Da Silva ceded ownership of the lion in 2009, and was unaware of any documentation contradicting that. (AFP)

Second Australian gallery removes stolen Indian artefact from display

A second Australian art gallery has removed from display a centuries-old statue following allegations the artefact was stolen from an ancient site in India and sold by a tainted Indian art dealer.

The decision by the Art Gallery of New South Wales (NSW) follows a similar move by Canberra-based National Gallery of Australia that on Monday, pulled from display the bronze $5.6-million statue, purchased in 2008 from New York art and antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor.

The stone Ardhanrishvara idol was sold to the NSW Art Gallery at a price of over $300,000 from Kapoors in 2004.

Both the statues — allegedly stolen and sold by Kapoor, who is on trial in Chennai for running antiquities smuggling — were removed from display following written requests from Indian government to return them back.

“The request for the return of the Ardhanariswara Idol is now a matter for the Australian Government through the Ministry for the Arts in the Attorney-General’s Department,” the Art Gallery of NSW said in a statement.

The gallery said the item has been removed and that it will continue to cooperate fully with the Australian government and relevant authorities towards a resolution.

Reacting to the issue, Chairman AusHeritage and CEO India Vision Institute Vinod Daniel said the two galleries should return the statues to India calling it “the appropriate thing to do.”

“The appropriate thing for these galleries to do is to repatriate these cultural objects back to India, especially for objects such as the ‘Dancing Shiva’ which would have been used for worship in Tamil Nadu,” he said.

Daniel said the Australian Museum in 2000 had sent 33 three objects back to the Government Museum in Chennai.

Attorney-General’s Department is currently processing the Indian government’s request of returning the allegedly stolen artefacts.