When a painting by the internationally renowned Ram Kumar went missing from the Lalit Kala Akademi and was replaced with a fake in 2003, the art fraternity was shocked. As more paintings have gone missing down the years since, successive governments seem to have been least bothered.
With the Modi government taking over the affairs of the akademi, the case of the missing paintings appears all but forgotten.
A Comptroller and Auditor-General report of 2011-2013 said 14 works of art were missing from the Akademi. “Out of this, nine art works had been missing since 1984, but the Akademi did not take any initiative to trace out the same or fix responsibility,” the report said.
The Akademi had not maintained any record of movement of the permanent collection prior to August 2013, it said. In 2010-11, when the Akademi transferred some 400 art works to a regional centre, 17 were damaged because they were not handled by a professional agency. The report said the missing paintings were not written off the record even if they were untraceable. No FIR appears to have been lodged or any enquiry committee formed.
Panel’s findings Nearly 10 years ago, a four-member expert committee was formed to review and authenticate the art works. The committee reported missing Landscape by Ram Kumar, Tandava by J. Swaminathan, Peace by K.K. Hebbar, Monkey God by M.F. Husain, Indian Traditional Girl by I. Jayachandran and two paintings by Somnath Hore.
The committee authenticated 2,000 works, but seriously questioned the authenticity of 12. The panel could not verify if these were genuine. The work stopped suddenly and resumed in 2007. The paintings continue to be listed as missing.
The case of the missing paintings forms the essence of a letter written by Ramakrishna Vedala, secretary in charge of the Akademi, in 2013 to the Central Bureau of Investigation. But nothing much happened after that.
Artists question wisdom of removing Akademi chairperson
Even as the Lalit Kala Akademi finds itself in the news for reasons other than art, there is a fear that priceless paintings missing from it might have found their way into private galleries.
What is now grabbing headlines is the government’s sudden takeover of the autonomous Akademi and a group of artists contesting the move in the Delhi High Court. The court had issued notice to the Union government asking why the takeover should not be quashed and a CBI inquiry initiated into the affairs of the Akademi. It is hoped that the court will look into the case of the missing paintings that find a mention in the papers submitted for its scrutiny.
The artists have questioned the government’s wisdom of removing Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty as Akademi Chairperson. Sources say he has taken several steps to clean up the Akademi and rid it of politics.
“He was actually in the process of setting the place in order and his removal comes as a shock,” an Akademi member said. Mr. Chakravarty’s tenure should have lasted till 2017.
Sources blame a former secretary for mismanagement of the Akademi’s affairs, a charge he denies. While the government has cited financial and administrative irregularities as reasons for the takeover, no one, it appears, has paid any attention to the paintings that have gone missing for long.
