• The pandemic was not merely a healthcare crisis. It created a ripple of crises that affected almost everything, including institutions of culture. Due to the financial upheaval it caused, many museums across the world had to sell some of their artworks to take care of the rest of their collections. This list included some of the world’s most renowned museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City (known as ‘the Met’).
  • But the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) in Mumbai came up with an idea to preserve their collection during a precarious time. The museum, which turns 100 next year, announced the ‘Adopt a Museum Artefact’ initiative, wherein people could adopt its centuries-old artefacts. The adopters’ names were displayed near their respective artefacts and at the museum’s entrance.
  • “Hundreds of Mumbaikars and some from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and Delhi came forward to support this initiative. They helped us raise ₹5 crore,” says Sabyasachi Mukherjee, the director general of CSMVS, who headed this initiative. “When I shared this story with my foreign colleagues, they were pleasantly surprised to know that this was successful.”