— Photo: SHASHI ASHIWAL

AN ARABIAN NIGHTS FANTASIA: The exquisite interiors of the Bhau Daji Lad Museum.

MUMBAI: Mumbai's Bhau Daji Lad Museum, formerly known as the Victoria & Albert Museum, has been honoured with an Award of Excellence given by UNESCO under its Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation programme, 2005. This honour represents a signal recognition of the efforts that have been under way, during the last 10 years, to restore this cultural monument to its former glory after a period of eclipse.

Coincidentally, this year marks the 150th anniversary of the museum's foundation. The Bhau Daji Lad is Mumbai's oldest museum and one of the finest embodiments of the Renaissance Revival style that produced many architectural gems in western India during the 19th century.

Originally established as a treasure house of the decorative and industrial arts in 1855, the museum was presided over for many years by the prominent art historian and curator, Sir George Birdwood.

By a curious paradox, the Orientalist Birdwood was viscerally opposed to India's high classical and courtly arts of sculpture and painting, but devoted himself to India's arts of ornamentation, detail and texture. He produced, among other works of scholarship, a monumental catalogue of Indian textiles.

The museum, which is situated close to the city zoo in central Mumbai, comes under the jurisdiction of Municipal Corporation. This has long been its bane: it lay in neglect for many decades until 1996, when a combination of forces began the process of restoring it to its former glory as a vital node in the cultural life of the metropolis.

In that year, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) approached the Corporation with a proposal to resurrect the institution, and to set up a conservation laboratory. After a considerable period of negotiation and discussion, the Corporation made the path-breaking decision to collaborate with INTACH and with the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation, which agreed to make an initial grant of Rs 1.5 crores for the project, to restore the fortunes of the museum.

In 2004, the Bajaj Foundation raised its contribution to Rs. 2 crores and promised an additional Rs. 3 crores for the establishment of a new arts centre in the museum precincts; the Corporation has matched this grant with a corpus fund of Rs. 5 crores.

With support from forward-looking bureaucrats at the Corporation, an INTACH team of historians and conservation specialists, led by Tasneem Mehta and Vikas Dilawari, has transformed the shabby building to its original contours.

The exquisite Palladian columns and the gilded balustrades and richly painted ceiling suggest the Victorian version of an Arabian Nights fantasia. The Minton floors have been rescued from beneath layers of dust and grit.

Ms. Mehta has curated the permanent display of the museum, including artefacts drawn from various regions and styles, as well as dioramas and models documenting the everyday life of colonial Mumbai.

Mr. Dilawari supervised the restoration, emphasising the importance of maintaining fidelity to the original techniques and materials used by the 19th-century creators of this magical edifice.

The museum is also working out a Memorandum of Understanding with its institutional twin, the

Victoria & Albert Museum, London, which will allow for an exchange of experts and exhibitions, and also pave the way for a training programme in London for the Bhau Daji Lad's curators.

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