Indian Museum Kolkata, the country's and Asia's oldest museum, is back in the news for damages to a priceless artifact under its roof. This time it is a 2nd century BC sculpture of a yakshi that has been damaged. The damage came to light on Wednesday morning after a furore broke out when museum staff were seen crudely trying to put together the broken portion in the leg of the sculpture with the help of glue.
The attempt was abandoned, said sources in the museum, when the pieces kept coming apart, after which the descriptive plaque fixed on the granite pedestal on which the statue was placed was removed. Signs of fresh damage can be clearly seen a little above the ankle of the yakshi running all around the stone sculpture, as well as attempts to repair it with some adhesive substance.
While Museum director B Venugopal did not respond to phonecalls, spokesperson Ashok Tripathy brushed aside the matter as rumours. "There has been no damage. These are ancient statues and when conservation teams work on them these cracks appear," he told dna.
The incident, and the Museum officials' attempt to cover up, are very similar to what happened in December 2013 when the Rampurva Lion Capital, a priceless Mauryan artifact dating back 2,200 years, broke while it was being shifted from its gallery.
According to museum staff, attempts were made then too to patch up the damages and conflicting accounts given for why the statue had broken. A team from the Archaeological Survey of India had then investigated the matter and indicted Museum staff for not following proper procedures which led to the Lion Capital breaking. A final report by the ASI is awaited.
The yakshi was located at the entrance of the Bharhut Gallery, which showcases archaeological finds from Bharhut belonging to Sunga period, along with fragments from Bodhgaya. The gallery, said museum officials, was inside an airconditioned glass enclosure to protect it from dust and pollution and had just one entrance. But about a year ago, the glass was removed and another entrance added, which opened out to the main JN Nehru road a few meters away.
The museum official who contacted the media fearing a re-run of the Lion Capital episode was of the opinion that base, covered in granite slabs, was too weak to hold up the heavy sandstone sculpture. As a result it had become unstable, causing cracks in the sculpture.
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