Delhi court orders seizure of allegedly offensive MF Husain paintings from art gallery

A Delhi court on Monday ordered the seizure of two paintings by late artist MF Husain that were displayed at an art gallery in the national capital following a complaint that they were allegedly offensive.

The paintings featured Hindu deities Hanuman and Ganesha.

The order was passed by Judicial Magistrate First Class Sahil Monga of the Patiala House Courts in response to a plea by advocate Amita Sachdeva who had sought the seizure of the paintings by the investigating officer.

Sachdeva said that she had clicked photos of the allegedly offensive paintings at DAG, formerly called the Delhi Art Gallery, in New Delhi’s Connaught Place area on December 4. She filed a police complaint on December 9 after researching previous first information reports filed against Husain.

However, she found that the paintings had been removed when she visited the gallery again on December 10. It was falsely claimed that the paintings were never displayed, Sachdeva alleged on social media on December 13.

“Is it acceptable to display such paintings in an exhibition under the guise of art?” she asked.

Sachdeva said at the time that she had filed applications demanding that a case be filed and security camera footage for the period from December 4 to December 10 be preserved.

In his order, Monga cited the police’s action taken report as saying that the investigating officer had seized the security camera footage and the network video recorder of the art gallery. “It is further stated in the ATR [action taken report] that a list of paintings was provided by Delhi Art Gallery in which the paintings in question are mentioned at Serial No. 6 and 10,” he said.

The inquiry report said that the art exhibition had been held in a private space and the paintings were only to display the original work of Husain, Monga said.

On Tuesday, The Indian Express quoted the art gallery as saying: “Pending an enquiry into a few select works of MF Husain at a recent exhibition, DAG is reviewing the situation and seeking counsel. We are not party to any court proceedings so far, and are trying to follow the developments.”

Husain, a recipient of India’s second-highest civilian award Padma Vibhushan, died in 2011.