Last week there was this rather interesting news that two of Nicolas Roerich’s paintings surfaced in London at an auction, and even got sold for a million pounds each until the buyers wanted to see the provenance of the works. Then
the fat got into the fire, and the works were traced back to the Indian Council for Agricultural Research in India. How they got there is anybody’s guess. Obviously, this is not the first time such a thing has happened and it will certainly not be the last.
It is like the proverbial saying in Hindi: Garib ki jooru sab ki bhabi (A poor man’s wife is easy game). While we go on bleating that public organisations should acquire art works as a way of supporting and patronising the arts, the fate of such art works in the absence of proper cataloguing and regular checking for disappearances and restorations, will always hang in the balance. These works will either end up being damaged, in dumps, or disappear. Art patronage in organisations where the benefaction is largely dependent on the interest of the person, often end up with a volte-face in the event of a change of guard.
For instance, a few years ago, the CMC had acquired expensive works by Manjit Bawa, as the chairman was deeply interested in arts. He patronised art shows, supported exhibitions. However, when the chairman retired, Manjit’s works along with some other artists’ works were found in a garage in a highly damaged state, as the new chairman was only interested in sports.
On the other hand, the ITC Hotels are also a classic case. The organisation built a formidable collection of art over the years with their regular art camps and direct acquisitions. In fact at one point their art collection in New Delhi alone was estimated to be worth more than the total cost of the hotel! However, with changes in the top management, there was a paradigm shift to polo and golf. Bye, bye art. It was such a pity, since the ITC Hotels were the only ones with decent and eclectic art collections. In fact, many of the works in public areas in several of their hotels across the country have been painted on site at art camps.
The Taj Group of Hotels, on the other hand, believed in direct acquisitions and also patronised the crafts sector. They have thankfully been more consistent in their overall approach and support. In fact in their Mumbai offices, the basement houses a vast collection that the senior management cadre may select
from. There works are issued to them after proper documentation. They may exchange the works and are supposed to return the artwork on leaving the company.
Meanwhile, the Lalit Hotel has also acquired a redoubtable collection over the years, and thankfully they have managed to weave it into their new elegant avatar following the refurbishing. Their hotels in Khajuraho, Bengaluru and other places too are following the same trend. Talking about Khajuraho, I had attended an art camp there in a medium sized, non-starred hotel, in which each room had an original work, not necessarily high end, and to my mind it set the hotel apart.
To my mind it was a laudable trend when interior decorators actually placed real art works in hotels and other spaces as opposed to the present trend of framing part of the wall paper or design elements to that effect (okay, okay I am
being sarcastic) to create impersonal clones of each other that is the current trend. It is all very fine to say that these clones are efficient and one can’t tell whether one is in Paris or New York or Jhumri Taliya, but surely a destination is also about the place and not merely staying in a clone hotel? If that was the case, why would anyone buy lowly postcards and other memorabilia of destinations?
And today if some of our hotels are repositories of good art it is because someone at the helm of affairs had the foresight to plan and build up a collection. To my mind, if good hotel service is a given, then it is either an art collection or a heritage building that sets a good hotel apart from a great one. Are interior decorators and hotelwallahs listening?
Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist