Indian Museum Phase One Opening!

On Sunday 2nd February, the Honourable Prime Minister of India, Shri Manmohan Singh, inaugurated the newly-renovated Indian Museum in Kolkata and ‘rededicated it to the nation’ as part of the much-anticipated bicentenary celebrations.

The Indian Museum, founded in 1814 by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, is the largest museum in India and has rare collections of antiques, armour and ornaments, fossils, skeletons, mummies, and Mughal paintings. Funded by the Union Ministry of Culture, the Chapman Taylor teams in India and Italy are currently undertaking a major restoration and renovation of the museum in two phases. Phase one saw the restoration of both the external and internal façades, a change of flooring, construction of a new ticket counter, restrooms and cafe plus the full refurbishment of four galleries; Anthropology, Gandhara, Archaeology plus Textile and Decorative.

The Prime Minister released a commemorative postal stamp and a monograph to mark the 200 years of the institution, while Governor M K Narayanan, also in attendance, described the museum as ‘an epitome of modernity in antiquity; comparable to the best in the world’ and praised the renovation works which have taken place without disturbing the historic antiquity.

Phase two of the works are scheduled to begin in June 2014 and will include the restoration of an administrative block, plus the full refurbishment of other galleries.