Title - Art attack: Anjolie Ela Menon wants damaged painting back from Kolkata Metro

KOLKATA: A mammoth painting that once adorned the Esplanade Metro station has been missing from its prime perch for nearly five years now. The painting, which is worth at least Rs 4 crore, was gifted to Kolkata Metro by none other than ace painter Anjolie Ela Menon in the early part of the last decade. The painting is damaged and needs immediate restoration, but bureaucratic delay has come in its way. Now, Menon is so upset that she wants the Metro to restore it in a year. Otherwise, she wants the painting back.Considered to be one of the top most painters of the country today, Ela feels "let down" at the way her precious gift has been treated. The painting is unique not only because of its size but also because it has been done on a fibre glass canvas and is complete in 10 panels. Another attraction was the fact that it was backlit and would not escape attention of commuters. The scene in the painting was that of a railway platform. It was fixed at a great height on a landing wall of the Esplanade Metro station at one of its exit points.Gradually, posters were pasted on it and papers and bills were hammered on to the fibre glass causing cracks and attracting a lot of grime and soot.This was reported to Menon by some of her friends and during one of her visits to the city she was shocked to find that the backlighting was destroyed and the entire painting was covered with posters. This happened in 2008 and she lost no time in complaining to the then governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi about the sorry state of the painting. in which her painting lay and requested his intervention.

Governor Gandhi asked the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach), an NGO, to check the painting and suggest remedies.

Intach had offered to clean and restore the painting at a cost of Rs 75,000, chargeable to the Metro Railway. Since then a number of letters were exchanged between Intach and the Metro but nothing has been done to restore the painting.

"We dismantled the painting to examine it and found that deep cracks had developed on the fibre glass canvas. That apart the painting was covered with soot and dirt.

We sent our restoration plan to Menon who was satisfied with it. However, even before we could start restoring it, the Metro Railway told us to provide bank and performance guarantees. We are an NGO that has been restoring heritage, paintings and other art works in the country for decades now. How can we give such guarantees? We asked for a waiver but that is yet to come from the Railway Board," said G M Kapur, state convener of Intach. In 2012, Intach even approached the then railway minister Dinesh Trivedi for his intervention. The latter promised to "expedite" the matter but the Railway Board is reportedly "still considering" the question of allowing a waiver since this would mean "going against the system."

Menon is extremely upset about this.

"How can they talk about restoration of a painting in the same breath as tendering for some nuts, bolts and beams? I am giving the Metro an ultimatum that if it does not get it restored and put up in next one year, I will take it back. It is worth at least four crores today and I gifted it to the Kolkata Metro simply because I like my paintings being displayed in public domain rather than in the custody of private collectors," Menon said. The minister of state for railways, Adhir Chowdhury, who is also Bengal's MP from Murshidabad, apologized for the delay. "I was not aware of this at all, but it is a matter of shame," he said. if such priceless work has not been cared for. I will personally follow this up wiith the Kolkata Metro and ensure a speedy restoration," Chowdhury promised.

The Metro Railway bosses, however, blamed Intach for the delay. "That agency is delaying the matter. We are regularly following up with them," said Pratyush Ghosh, DGM of Metro.

None of the bosses were however sure as to where the painting lay at the moment.