As Ron Radford exits, NGA in denial over Shiva

The NGA is a much-changed institution, inside and out, since 2004, when he succeeded the controversial Brian Kennedy. Besides a grand new entrance and foyer, there are new galleries of indigenous and Asian art, and a large events space, Gandel Hall. The NGA's overall collection has grown considerably, and plans are well-advanced for a new wing to house Australian art presently exhibited in an upstairs section of the gallery known as the "attic".

Yet, Mr Radford's departure has been overshadowed by the long and drawn-out saga of a stolen 11^th-century Indian bronze sculpture unwittingly bought by the NGA for $US5 million in 2008. Last week – in what must rate as one of Tony Abbott's more bizarre attempts to curry favour with the great and powerful – the sculpture was returned to New Delhi during the Prime Minister's state visit. And yet, at the risk of tarnishing Mr Radford's legacy, the NGA has been stubbornly defiant regarding any suggestion that The Dancing Shiva (as the sculpture is known) was stolen, or that the gallery failed to undertake due diligence when buying it.

Reputable galleries have been knowingly and unknowingly buying stolen or looted art for centuries, but the tolerance for this fell to zero in the post-war period, particularly after movable cultural heritage laws were adopted in the United Nations in 1970. However, the large sums of money to be had in dealing in fine art ensure plenty of conmen are willing to try and hoodwink gallery buyers.

New York antiquities dealer Subhas Kapoor was one such individual, plausible and with apparently faultless sales and export documents to back up his claims of rightful ownership to the pieces he was selling. As someone who specialised in art from the Indian subcontinent, Kapoor was a man the NGA felt it could do business with, since the collection of Asian art is part of its charter. From 2002-11, the NGA bought 22 works from Kapoor. The Dancing Shiva's sizeable price tag commanded attention, and the NGA gave it pride of place in its gallery of art from the Indian subcontinent. In 2011, however, Kapoor was arrested in Germany and charged with trafficking statues and other items looted from Indian temples. The following July, he was extradited to India to face charges of overseeing a vast antiquities looting and smuggling operation.

In August 2012, a New York newspaper article claimed The Dancing Shiva was one of the stolen pieces Kapoor had traded. After the arrest and conviction in the US of Kapoor's gallery manager on charges of arranging to ship stolen antiquities using fake documents, galleries quickly arranged to double-check the provenance of pieces they'd acquired from Kapoor – in some cases removing them from public view while they awaited verification.

From the outset, however, Mr Radford denied there was evidence indicating the NGA's prize piece had been stolen – or that the gallery's oversight of the acquisition had been anything less than thorough. And he has not deviated from that line. Last week, just as Mr Abbott was handing the statue over to Narendra Modi, the NGA issued a statement saying, "it has not yet been proved that [the Shiva] was stolen". All the evidence – and the gallery's own decision to relinquish the piece – suggest otherwise. The website Chasing Aphrodite revealed in June 2013 that the statue had been stolen from a temple in Tamil Nadu state, a story since verified by other news outlets.

The gallery's defensiveness may be attributed in part to an outstanding legal action against Kapoor, but its handling of the fallout from the scandalhas cast a shadow over Mr Radford's legacy as an energetic and enthusiastic NGA director, and an effective fundraiser at a time when government support for cultural institutions has shrunk markedly.