Kathmandu, April 12 -- Nearly 40 years after it was stolen from Patan, a rare stone statue of Laxmi-Narayan finally landed at Kathmandu airport on Monday, raising hopes for the return of thousands of other religious objects from Nepal.

The 800-year-old androgynous idol was wrenched out of its shrine in July 1984 from Patan's Pakto Tole where it was being worshipped till the day it was stolen. The figure surfaced briefly in 1990 at a Sotheby's auction, disappeared again, and was later spotted at the Dallas Museum of Art where it was an 'exhibit' since 2007.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) handed over the statue to theNepal Embassy in Washington on 6 March, and it took some time for the documents to be processed before the go...