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HERITAGE: MUSEUMS
No Inventories, No Catalogues
Conditions at Hyderabad's
famous Salar Jung Museum are no better than those in Mumbai and Chennai.
Sometimes derisively called the Salar Junk Museum (because of its whimsically
collected exhibits and cluttered display), it is nevertheless a big draw,
attracting about 3,000 visitors a day. Perhaps it is the steady flow of
dignitaries and diplomats that propelled the museum authorities to put
up proper signages. There is even a sketchy, cheaply printed guidebook
priced at Rs 40. Postcards apart, poorly crafted replicas of famous works
from the collection-like the Italian Veiled Rebecca-are available at the
museum shop for Rs 30 each. The most serious problem faced by the Salar
Jung in the past has been the theft of priceless objects. As there was
no comprehensive inventory or catalogue, it was easy for the unscrupulous
among the museum staff to steal and sell several objects, replacing the
originals with fakes. Security is now in the hands of the Central Industrial
Security Force. "We now have a well maintained inventory," says
director A.K.V.S. Reddy.
Shocking as it may be, this is a lesson that
even the National Museum, Delhi, is just learning. After several decades
of gross negligence, an "expert" committee under the chairmanship
of M. Varadarajan, a former bureaucrat, has been set up to create a comprehensive
inventory of the museum's vast collection which runs into hundreds of
thousands of objects. But even now objects are not being photographed
from various angles for record, as is the usual international practice,
to guard against fakes and undertake future restoration if need be. "The
National Museum has been a hostage to the Department of Culture after
the retirement of L.P. Sihare, its last professional director-general,"
says Rupika Chawla, noted art restorer. Lorded over by passing IAS officers
for over a decade, the museum has been deprived of a professional art
historian or museologist at its head for reasons that make sense only
to the Department of Culture and the UPSC.
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| SCARRED TREASURES: Sculptures haphazardly
placed on cement blocks brave the elements at the Government Museum,
Chennai; (right) detail of a damaged painting up for restoration at
the National Museum, Delhi |
Most museum managers attribute their shortcomings
to a paucity of funds. In Mumbai, Kalpana Desai, director of the Prince
of Wales Museum, says, "Our annual budget is roughly Rs 2 crore.
After salaries and establishment costs, we have to beg, borrow and scout
for sponsors for every little maintenance job or for any big project."
Kannan doesn't believe in comparing Indian museums with those abroad,
"It's comparing the incomparable. If our museums have to be compared
to those abroad, so should all the other indices of development."
More than funds it's also a matter of attitude.
Shireen Gandhy, director of Mumbai's Gallery Chemould, rightly points
out, "Museum culture just does not exist in India. No one here would
say: 'Hey, if we have nothing to do, let's go to the museum'. Things will
change for the better only if the way Indian museologists look at museums
changes." Shyamal Kanti Chakravarti, director of the Indian Museum,
Kolkata, seems to have caught the drift. "Till now no one thought
of the museum as a service provider," he says. Chakravarti also knows
that to become a public recreational and educational utility, his museum
will have to compete with films and football.
Properly curated theme-based exhibitions, expert
lighting and displays, well-researched and handsomely printed catalogues,
books and posters are things few Indian museums have been able to boast
of. In the past couple of years the National Museum has felt the need
to invite independent curators and designers for a couple of exhibitions
like the "Art of the Sikhs". The result was for all to see.
Hopefully, with major projects like the showing of the Nizam's jewels
and the Picasso exhibition on the anvil, things will finally change for
the better.
—With Amarnath K. Menon, Arun
Ram and Labonita Ghosh
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