In March, the Dallas Museum of Art repatriated a deity sculpture to Nepal with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and earlier this month, officials from the Denver Art Museum returned another sacred statue to Nepal. “In returning this sculpture to Nepal, the museum is acting to strengthen the good relationship it has long maintained with scholarly institutions and colleagues in Nepal.” “The museum is committed to the responsible acquisition of archaeological art, and applies rigorous provenance standards both to new acquisitions and the study of works long in its collection,” said the Met in a statement. There are currently more than 200 Nepali objects in the collection, according to a museum spokesman. In 2018, the cultural institution repatriated two stone sculptures: a 12th-century stele of Uma Mahesvara (Shiva and Parvati) and a 10th-century sculpture of Buddha. Return of the Shiva sculpture marks the third time in as many years that the Met Museum has repatriated an item from its collection to Nepal.