New Delhi: After nearly a seven-year delay in conserving Darbhanga’s rare ivory and wooden artefacts by the National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Property, a letter highlighting the negligence has been sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ThePrint has learned.
The ivory objects are housed and displayed at the Maharajadhiraja Lakshmishwar Singh Museum in Darbhanga, Bihar, and are considered among the finest in the world.
In a letter to Modi, Shiv Kumar Mishra, a former curator of the museum and co-convenor of the Bihar chapter of INTACH, stated that the museum’s rare items are deteriorating due to the negligence of NRLC Lucknow officials operating under the Union Ministry of Culture.
Nearly seven years have passed, and dozens of letters have been written to NRLC seeking the conservation of the ivory and wooden artefacts.
In 2019, Darbhanga Museum and NRLC Lucknow signed an agreement for the conservation of 155 antiquities, including depictions of Mahishasuramardini, an elephant howdah, a palanquin, a royal throne, vanity boxes, chairs, tables, and a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj on horseback.
The wooden objects at the museum include a depiction of Lord Buddha’s birth, temple replicas, a sofa, carvings of crocodiles, fish and tortoises, and a darbar hall table. Maharaja Rameshwar Singh commissioned Murshidabad artisans to create numerous ivory art objects between 1900 and 1929.
As these objects are over a century old, they have begun to deteriorate. According to the agreement, the work was to be completed within three years.
The Darbhanga Museum, which functions under the Department of Art, Culture and Youth Affairs of the Bihar government, sanctioned Rs 1.65 crore for the conservation work.
“According to the agreement, half the amount, Rs 82.5 lakh, was paid in advance by the museum to NRLC. But years later, the conservation work remains incomplete due to the lethargy of NRLC officials, casting a shadow of uncertainty over the future of this cultural heritage,” Mishra told ThePrint.
The royal family of Darbhanga donated the rare ivory collection to the museum.
“The collection houses an unparalleled number of ivory art objects—a scale unmatched anywhere else in the country,” said Mishra.
A long delay
Mishra recalled visiting Lucknow in 2019 to sign the agreement with then NRLC director general Manager Singh.
After the 2019 agreement, a five-member team from NRLC Lucknow visited the Darbhanga Museum to undertake the conservation work. The team was stationed there for a year and conserved around 100 rare objects, all of which were smaller artefacts.
Mishra said larger items such as the palanquin, howdah, and royal throne were left unattended.
“The NRLC team only worked on smaller objects. They did fine work as the objects made of elephant ivory were breaking and crumbling,” said Mishra, who was curator at the museum from 2017 to 2022. The conserved objects are displayed in the museum.
The NRLC officials then returned to Lucknow and never came back. Several letters were sent to the director general, but the work never resumed.
The conservators applied a specialised methodology for fragile, yellowed ivory inlay objects.
A 2024 paper by NRLC scientist Sanjay Prasad Gupta and art conservator Iliyas Ahmed, titled A New Approach For Restoration Of Ivory And Ivory Inlay Objects With Reference To Objects At Maharaja Laxmishwar Singh Museum, Darbhanga, highlighted precise cleaning, gap-filling, and structural reinforcement techniques designed to stabilise them without causing moisture damage.
The authors emphasised the use of controlled, eco-friendly solvents rather than harsh chemicals for stain removal, along with reversible adhesives for setting loose inlay pieces.
Mishra recalled that he worked for two years, and after several negotiations, NRLC finally agreed to undertake the conservation of the ivory objects.
In 2017, then Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar visited the museum in Darbhanga. Mishra informed him about the talks with NRLC. Kumar directed the officials to expedite the conservation work and ensure it is done properly.
In 2022, former ASI additional director general Alok Tripathi held the position of NRCL’s director general. After Tripathi, his colleague at ASI, Additional Director General Janhwij Sharma, was given additional charge as DG, NRLC.
“NRLC is suffering from a severe staff crisis, and appointments are pending. An administrative lacuna is behind the delay in the conservation work at Darbhanga. We have completed around 65 per cent of the work. There is no doubt that these artefacts are unique,” said Iliyas Ahmed, an art conservator at NRLC.
Ahmed said that NRLC currently lacks sufficient regular staff to undertake this project. However, he said, the appointments are under way.
“Hopefully, within a month or two, we will have the manpower at NRLC to take on the remaining work, and the work will resume,” said Ahmed.
Demand for action
In a letter to Modi, Mishra urged him to direct the Culture Ministry to take immediate steps to preserve India’s rare cultural heritage.
“There is a need to take appropriate legal action against the officials responsible for this negligence and laxity,” the letter, which ThePrint accessed, states.
Mishra said this was the first time any objects from Bihar were being conserved by NRLC, which was established in 1976.
Between 2021 and 2026, the Modi government allocated Rs 28.2 crore to NRLC, of which it spent Rs 24.17 crore.
However, in its 2024–25 annual report, the Culture Ministry mentioned the conservation work at Darbhanga.
“Conserved ivory inlays, wooden, and metal objects at Maharajadhiraj Lakshmishwar Singh Sangrahalaya, Darbhanga,” the report states.
However, in the last five years, the government has failed to appoint a permanent director general at NRLC, a premier conservation institution in India.
“Either a senior official from the ASI or an official from the Culture Ministry has been heading the institution,” said Mishra.
(Edited by Prashant Dixit)