An ancient Indian sculpture that until recently had its home amongst other Asian antiquities at the National Gallery of Australia is set to return to India.
The gallery has also revealed it will examine the provenance of a further 18 items in the 5000-piece collection - in addition to 54 that were already being checked - and that it has put at least a temporary halt on buying any more Asian antiquities given it was "fraught with difficulty".
The National Gallery announced on Friday that the Seated Buddha sculpture would be returned to the American gallery it was purchased from, and in turn "voluntarily donated" to India.
The New York-based Nancy Weiner Gallery sold the work to the gallery in 2007 for more than $1.2 million.
NGA director Gerard Vaughan said the gallery would get a refund from the Nancy Weiner Gallery, which would then send it back to India.
"The most important thing is that it is going back to India and we will be in a position to have the purchase price refunded," he said.
"I think in Australia it is the first case [of having a piece refunded]."
He said the gallery was an ethical institution, and must "always be seen to be doing the right thing".
"So if it can be proved, or assumed in a very serious way, that a work of art has left its country of origin illegally, then we should be very careful about it," he said.
Mr Vaughan also indicated the the gallery would not be expanding its 5000-piece Asian antiquities collection any further - at least for now.
"I don't believe that this institution has any intention at present of continuing to collect in this area. It is fraught with difficulty," he said.
Doubts were raised about the Seated Buddha sculpture's provenance last year, and discussions about its possible return to India began in October.
Although the gallery maintains it was confident at the time of purchase in 2007 that the available information about the sculpture's provenance outside India was adequate, new Australian Government Guidelines for Collecting Cultural Material have cast doubts over whether the work's export complied with Australian law.
"Given the passage of time, the NGA is of the view that further clarification on this issue is unlikely," the gallery said in a statement.
"Accordingly, the NGA and NWG have agreed that the best course is to donate the work to a museum or other cultural institution located in India."
The statement also acknowledged the cooperation of the Nancy Weiner Gallery.
That gallery's president, Nancy Wiener, said: "The NWG understands the situation, and we appreciate and respect the new policies at the NGA and the new standards of the Australian government towards the stewardship of antiquities."
The Seated Buddha is expected to be returned to India some time this year.
The national gallery also announced it had appointed former High Court judge Sue Crennan as the independent reviewer for its Asian Art Provenance Research Project.
The project, which began in December, will involve a methodical examination of the provenance of works from the gallery's vast Asian collection.
Ms Crennan, who retired from the High Court last month, will evaluate the research process and make a determination as to whether the works in the Asian Collection conform legally and ethically to Australian and international laws and guidelines.
The gallery revealed last year it was examining the provenance of 54 items in the collection, and Mr Vaughan said on Friday that a further 18 items would be checked.
"That doesn't mean there is something necessarily wrong with these items. It is just that we are going to methodically check all the information that we have, and find out of we can get more information," he said.
