Blood Work

‘‘I would not be too quick to pass judgement on Roy translating her assets into money. After all it’s something all of us do. Only recently I sold a work from my father’s collection,’’ says Shireen Gandhy who stands to inherit Kekoo Gandhy’s eclectic personal set. ‘‘It is a valuable body of work and, as far as possible, I would like to hold onto it,’’ she adds.

While most inheritors like Gandhy, Rajaraja Menon (Anjolie Ela’s son) and Rasika Mohan (Krishan Khanna’s daughter) would like to keep their collection on their walls, others like Rekha Rao (K K Hebber’s daughter), M F Husain and families like the Gaikwads have museumised most of their collection.

Husain has museums in Bangalore, Faridabad on the outskirts of Delhi and Ahmedabad. However, the secluded Faridabad ‘museum’ is nothing more than a bungalow with twenty odd Husains and an old caretaker couple living on the premises. ‘‘I have set these museums up over the last ten years since I want to share these works. The others that I have not museumised will go to my children. I will never give any thing to any government bodies,’’ says a peeved Husain, sore after the way his Indira Gandhi series was treated. The works were neglected to the point where they became fungus-ridden.

Costume designer Amba Sanyal is an only child and finds herself trying to sort out B C Sanyal’s 100-odd works. ‘‘I am keen to have the works restored and documented but I know it’s not going to be an easy task. I would like to keep his letters, papers and sketch books,’’ says Sanyal.

Plans to open a K K Hebber museum and library in Kalanagar have long been afoot in the Rao household. While most of the prime works have either been bought up by the Karnataka Government or are up at the K K Hebber centre in Bangalore, the very personal works, like portraits of family and friends, is what Rao wants to finally put in the museum.

Artist Krishen Khanna has been collecting since the age of 17. ‘‘I would give all my works to my children since they will take care of it. There are lots of works but to manage them is not a herculean task,’’ says the veteran artist whose children, photographer Karan, Bharatnatyam dancer Rasika Mohan and artist Malti Shah stand to inherit the collection.

Meanwhile Kekoo Gandhy has been in a huddle with Saryu Doshi, director National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA). ‘‘We plan to form a pool of collectors where some works, sent on consignment, will hang in the gallery. If the collector decides to bequeath the work then it will be the responsibility of the NGMA,’’ says Gandhy.

Selling inherited paintings is the big problem. With little or no infrastructure to follow many who do not live in Mumbai or Delhi are left groping in the dark. ‘‘As of now it is a very young market we are talking about, where the process of institution building is still in its infancy,’’ says Tuli. ‘‘One is not even able to fully insure a work of art and much of the market remains largely unregulated.’’

With all the fog surrounds the buying, selling and inheriting of art, it comes as no surprise that the fate of one of the best collections in Mumbai still hangs in limbo. It has been over a year since Jehangir Nicholson passed away. His dreams to open The Nicholson Museum still remain unfulfilled…in fact, no one is willing to talk about what will happen to the collection or who will inherit it. All we know is that his papers still have to be put in order and the heir apparent, activist Cyrus Guzdar, remains tightlipped about the whole issue.

(With inputs from Shailaja Tripathi in New Delhi)