New Delhi: Government did not make any
effort to stop 12 rare paintings of Nobel Laureate
Rabindranath Tagore from going under the hammer in London as
there is no legal provision to stop such auctions.
"There is no legal provision to stop such auctions,"
Minister of State for Planning V Narayanasamy, who is also
ad-hoc charge of the Culture Ministry, told the Lok Sabha
today.
He was responding to a question whether the government
had made any efforts to stop the auction of 12 rare paintings
of Tagore in London on June 15.
The much talked about paintings of the Nobel Laureate
fetched 1.6 million pounds at Sotheby's, exceeding by a
massive margin the pre-sale estimate of 2,50,000 pounds.
When parties like CPI-M raised the issue at a meeting in
May, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had assured that the
government will examine the matter but at the same time said
it had no legal rights over the paintings.
He had also recalled how the government tried hard to
stop the auction of Mahatma Gandhi's belongings in New York.
In the case of Tagore's paintings, the government had
very little option as the ones which went under the hammer
were personally gifted by Tagore to a charity house in London.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, August 11, 2010, 21:58