While Air India has gone back to its original owner, the Tatas, its art collection built by JRD Tata is still staying with the government. Officials said the deal entails only the airline and Air India’s non-core assets, such as land, building and other belongings, remain with the government. Sources in the Ministry of Culture said they will try to expedite the process of formal handover and consequent display of the collection in the Capital.
The focus shifted to the art collection in July 2018 when the proposed sale of Air India’s Nariman Point building started to take shape.“The Maharaja collection”, as it is called, has over 4,000 works, including paintings by legendary artists such as Jatin Das, Anjolie Ela Menon, M F Husain and V S Gaitonde.
