Durga Puja has long presented business opportunities in West Bengal,with many community pujas corporatised in recent years. Of late,even the remnants of pujas have been presenting such opportunities besides highlighting the fact that these are works of art that need to be preserved. Some art collectors have offered a price for such artifacts while and others have been assured these free. Artist Gregor Schneider,who helped recreate a German road inside Kolkatas Ekdalia Puja pandal,will take a portion home to Germany. The pujas chief organiser,Public Health Engineering Minister Subrata Mukherjee,is delighted at the promise of preservation and will not charge Schneider for something he helped design. On North Kolkatas Nalin Sarkar Street,Sanatana Dinda designed an image in fibre glass and did not have the heart to allow immersion of his work of 45 days. He says the State Hermitage Museum,Germany,and Tate Museum wanted to buy it but he prefers to have it preserved,as those in the West would. Commerce and Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee was reportedly offered over Rs 1 crore for the 1,500-kg,brass-and-mahogany idol at his community puja at South Kolkatas Naktala Udayan Sangha. He says he would rather preserve than sell but will consult the Chief Minister first. And at Trinamool Congress MLA Arup Biswass Suruchi Sangha in Kolkatas New Alipore,the pandal was modelled on the theme of climate change in Kashmir. He is in the process of auctioning the artifacts,which took Rs 20 lakh to create,but stresses that he will ensure the buyer is someone who can preserve them. Schneider will keep his portions in a museum. I will take a portion of the pandal and of the idol after immersion and preserve these in a museum in Germany, Schneider says. And Subrata Mukherjee says,It was a collaborative effort with Max Mueller Bhavan. If the artist wants to take a portion,we will not charge anything. The fact that a piece of a Kolkata pandal will be admired in some part of Germany is in itself a priceless achievement. In the West there is a culture of preservation. We too should imbibe that culture with the art around the pujas here, says artist Dinda,who estimates his idols worth at over Rs 50 lakh but who would rather not see it leave Kolkata. If some years from now,if I can have my own museum,I can preserve my work, he says. One means of preservation has been suggested by organiser Bappaditya Sengupta of a community puja in Akipore,South Kolkata. The goddess carries weapons in her hands; why not preserve them at the Kolkata Police Museum,he says. Partha Chatterjee says Mamata Bannerjee will take the final call on how best to preserve his pujas idol,designed by Bhabatosh Sutar. He prefers putting it in a museum but says if it is sold,the money will go to into the Chief Ministers Relief Fund. The remnants of some big-budget pujas will be preserved but in a number of others,items such as masks,panels and decorations are going up on sale.
