THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Culture Department is considering administrative autonomy for Napier Museum. The argument is that autonomy alone could catalyse the cultural and financial revival of the 19th century structure. Autonomy talks have been doing the rounds for some time. Two years ago, the Public Expenditure Review Committee, which first mooted the idea, had said that autonomy should be seen as an “incentive mechanism” to revamp the activities of the museum and bring in more revenues to the state.
The general feeling is that the Napier Museum has being showing deep disrespect to the state cultural heritage. “In this museum 1,115 pieces of world class super paintings including that of Nicholas Roerich, Raja Ravi Varma and Rabindranath Tagore are dumped in the stock room for want of space,” a top Culture Department official said. The Expenditure Committee report had also said that a sufficiently large space should be created and the dumped paintings properly displayed.
There have also been demands to appoint an interpreter. The objective is to lure tourists, both foreign and domestic, and researchers so that revenues are augmented. The Napier Museum houses a rare collection of archaeological and historical artefacts, bronze idols, ancient ornaments, a temple chariot and ivory carvings. The Sri Chithra Art Gallery, which houses paintings of legends, is also part of the museum.
“All of this should be digitized and should be open for researchers for a heavy fee,” the Culture Department official said. There are also plans to secure the services of National Research Laboratory for Conservation, Lucknow, be utilized for the standardization of the paintings.
The Department, based on the recommendation of the Expenditure Committee, wants to develop a ‘herbarium’ on the premises. “The herbarium can improve herbal knowledge, provide herbs to the medical industry and bring revenue to the exchequer through sale of herbs,” the official said.
