Even as the complex process to sell the beleaguered state-run Air India is under way, a cloud hangs over the airline’s massive art collection, which includes works by M.F. Husain and S.H. Raza and the iconic Salvador Dali ashtrays.
While the collection was to be transferred to the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) before the national carrier is sold to a private player, the immense value of these works has made officials wary of participating in any procedure to do so, lest they face charges of mishandling or theft.
“We are working on chalking out a mechanism for handing over the paintings and other art works. We will gift them for free to NGMA in return for which there will be a public exhibition in the name of Air India,” said an airline official with direct knowledge of discussions on the matter .
Apart from Hussain and Raza, the collection of nearly 4,000 paintings includes works by many of India’s best known artists — V.S. Gaitonde, K.A. Ara, Anjolie Ela Menon, Arpana Caur and B. Prabha . There are also stone sculptures dating back to the ninth century, wood work, a collection of exquisite clocks as well as a costume collection.
Artefacts in the collection recall the heyday of the airline such as ashtrays designed by surrealist Salvador Dali which were meant to be gifted to first-class passengers.
Rich history
The art works were collected over a period of six decades between early 1950s and 2007 and started when the erstwhile Tata Airlines was expanding its global reach and needed to showcase “a little of India”, in the words of its founder J.R.D. Tata, in its booking offices across the world.
A 2017 proposal to set up a museum at the Air India building at Mumbai’s Nariman Point had to be abandoned when the Union Cabinet decided to privatise the airline. Subsequently, a decision was taken to donate these national treasures to the NGMA.
Two years on, most of the artworks remain stored in a godown in Mumbai, while some are yet to be retrieved from foreign offices abroad.
The task of preparing an inventory was initiated in 2016 and has not concluded yet.
“These artworks were on display at Air India’s booking offices across the world. These offices sometimes shifted and on other occasions the boundaries of the countries they were located in were redrawn, for instance when the USSR split. As a result, these paintings moved around a lot and it was very difficult to keep track of them. With the advent of technology and computerisation, the size of the booking offices also shrunk and there was no space to display these art works and they were packed in boxes,” Meera Dass, an art historian who was involved for nearly two years in preparing the inventory describes why it is such a complex and mammoth task.
Government decisions pertaining to Air India are currently being probed by several agencies, like the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate. A former Executive Director-level officer at the airline also faced charges two years back for allegedly stealing a painting after artist Jatin Das wrote to the airline highlighting that his oil painting titled “Flying Apsara” that Air India had commissioned in 1991 was available in the open market for sale.
The Director General of NGMA, Adwaita Gadnayak. who has visited Air India's Mumbai office in the past to take stock of the collection said, “There is no progress so far [on transferring of artworks]. There is a plan. If we get a possession we can do something. With elections over we expect this to happen soon.”
With airline officials playing safe, Air India headquarters has decided to devise a procedure so that there is no blame-game at a later stage.
“Officials are wary of facing allegations of pilferage. This will be a long-drawn procedure because of the sheer size of the collection and what if allegations of stealing originals and transferring imitations to NGMA begin to fly thick and fast,” said an official.
