NEW YORK: In a park in San Jose, California, a statue of the Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj went lost last month. It has since been found.

The monument of the leader riding a horse and holding a sword at Guadalupe River Park was a gift from Pune, San Jose's sister city.

The Mercury News stated that the 440-pound sculpture of the emperor from the 17th century was discovered last week next to a soda machine in the lobby of Tung Tai Group, a San Jose metal scrapyard north of downtown.

Two police officers and two detectives visited the scrapyard after being informed of the location of the statue to speak with its employees.

Workers told the investigators that two men and a woman delivered the sculpture to the location at 1726 Rogers Avenue on January 29, but they did not give a more complete description of the group.

The statue was then placed in the trunk of a patrol car by an officer and one of the scrapyard employees.

"I'm really happy that it's back. People inquired about its location, "said Sunil Ganu, a San Jose resident who helped install the statue more than 20 years ago. He claimed that when it was first put in place, the statue had to be lifted by a tiny crane.

The only statue of Shivaji Maharaj in North America, it was first brought to the city in 1999.

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