Both statues have been gathering dust at the storage facility in Musée Guimet museum in Paris. The museum had removed the statues from public display after receiving proofs from historian, Late Lain Singh Bangdel who spotted the statues while on a trip to Paris, that the statues were stolen.

“We have been ready to return the statues ever since we were informed that the statues were stolen,” said chief curator of the Nepal-Tibet section at the museum, Natalie Bazin. The Department of Archaeology in Nepal had forwarded a letter requesting the return of the statues in 2000. However, as there were certain official procedures to be followed, Bazin believed that the Nepal government could not prioritise the matter due to political turmoil.

However, refuting the claims made by the museum, Ambassador to France Mohan Krishna Shrestha said they did not have any knowledge about what happened earlier but now that the museum had made its intentions clear, they were waiting for an official letter of intent from the museum to speed up the process to return the statues home.

Meanwhile, the museum has stated its plans to return the statues after organising a grand exhibition displaying artifacts related to Nepal in 2016, which coincides with the 50-year anniversary since the first exhibition of Nepali artifacts was held in Paris during the visit of the Late King Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah. Bazin reasoned that as the statues had been on display in the museum since decades, it was essential for the French to know why they were being returned.