Indian court orders seizure of “offensive” paintings

A court in the Indian capital Delhi has ordered the seizure of two “offensive” paintings by one of India’s most famous artists, MF Husain.

A court on Monday allowed the police to seize artworks after a complaint was filed that paintings of two Hindu deities on display at an art gallery “hurt religious sentiments”.

Husain, who died in 2011 aged 95, often tackled depictions of naked Hindu deities in his paintings.

The Delhi Art Gallery (DAG), which held the exhibition, said in a statement that it is “not part of the legal process and is seeking legal advice”.

The paintings were part of an exhibition titled Husain: The Timeless Modernist, which featured more than 100 works at DAG from October 26 to December 14.

The complainant, lawyer Amita Sachdeva, said in X that she had photographed the “offensive paintings” displayed at the DAG on December 4 and, after investigating earlier allegations against the late artist, filed a police complaint five days later.

On December 10, Ms. Sachdeva reported that she visited the gallery with the investigator only to find that the paintings had been removed. He said gallery officials had never shown the paintings.

The BBC has contacted DAG for comment.

Ms Sachdeva shared the paintings online alongside nude female figures depicting the Hindu gods Ganesha and Hanuman. He also alleged that the Delhi police did not file a report.

He later asked the court to preserve the gallery’s CCTV footage from the time the paintings were allegedly exhibited, according to media reports.

On Monday, a judge in Delhi’s Patiala House Court said the police had obtained the footage and submitted a report. According to the inquiry, the exhibition was held in a private space and only intended to show the artist’s original work, added the judge.

The art gallery said in a statement that they are “reviewing the situation” and “trying to follow developments”.

Maqbool Fida Husain was one of India’s greatest painters and was called the “Picasso of India”, but his art often sparked controversy in the country. His works have sold for millions of dollars.

His career was marked by controversy, when he was accused of obscenity and denounced by hardline Hindus for a painting of a naked goddess.

In 2006, Husain publicly apologized for his painting, Mother India. A naked woman was shown kneeling on the ground creating the shape of the map of India. He left the country the same year and lived in self-imposed exile in London until his death.

In 2008, the Supreme Court of India He refused to initiate criminal proceedings against Husainthat his paintings were not obscene and that nudity was common in Indian iconography and history.

The court then dismissed an appeal against a Supreme Court ruling that quashed criminal proceedings against Husain in the cities of Bhopal, Indore and Rajkot, condemning the rise of “new puritanism” in India.

The court also refused to summon Husain, who was then in exile, and ask him to explain his paintings, on the grounds that they had outraged religious sentiments and disturbed national integrity.

“There are so many issues, pictures and publications. Are you going to file cases against all of them? What about temple structures? Husain’s work is art. If you don’t want to see it, don’t see it. There are so many such art forms in temple structures,” he said. the courts

Many believe that there is a rise in liberalism against artistic expression in India.

Bombay High Court in October he scolded the customs department FN Souza and Akbar Padamsee for seizing artworks of famous artists on the grounds that they were “obscene material”.

The court ruled that not every painting that is nude or sexually explicit is considered obscene and ordered the release of seven seized works of art.

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