It is a tale of two Shivas - one cast aside by the National Gallery of Australia only to become the prize exhibit at one of the world's leading museums.
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The other Shiva has rained down trouble on the Canberra gallery, which stands to lose the statue currently on display without compensation if it is proven to have been stolen from an Indian temple.
The bronze statue of Shiva sold by the NGA to help purchase a larger Shiva from an antiquities dealer on trial for looting will be shown in one of the world's leading museums, the Louvre Museum in Paris from May as part of the Birth of a Museum exhibition of artefacts from the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Meanwhile, the trial of Subhash Kapoor for allegedly looting hundreds of antiquities, including the larger Shiva bought by the NGA for $US5 million ($5.54 million) in 2008, is scheduled to resume in India on Friday.
A spokeswoman for the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Cultural Authority confirmed the Indian statue purchased from the NGA will be among the ''finest masterpieces'' from the Louvre Abu Dhabi's permanent collection that will be displayed in Paris.
Fairfax Media reported last July that a bronze Nataraja or dancing Shiva statue was purchased by the NGA for about $1 million under the directorship of Betty Churcher on the advice of the Art Gallery of NSW's director Michael Brand, who was then curator of Asian art at the Canberra gallery. But the NGA led by present director Ron Radford received approval from then arts minister Peter Garrett to deaccession that Shiva, which was sold the following year.
NGA policy allows for deaccession where ''a more superior example has been acquired'' - the justification that appears to have been used to sell Ms Churcher's Shiva for a larger version surrounded by a ring of flames.
Mr Radford told the ABC earlier this month that he would not return the millions of dollars of antiquities to India unless there was further proof they had been stolen.
Yet the NGA has launched action in New York's Supreme Court, suing Mr Kapoor and his Art of the Past commercial gallery for $5 million plus legal fees and costs.
The manager of Mr Kapoor's Manhattan gallery, Aaron Freedman, pleaded guilty to six criminal charges in the New York Supreme Court last December, including stealing the Shiva that was bought by the NGA.
