Two pandemics and a museum

A massive scaffolding stands at the centre of the Key Gallery at The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), previously known as the Prince of Wales Museum, in Mumbai. Under normal circumstances, the scaffolding built for the overall conservation work of the 107-year-old structure would be a matter of great inconvenience to the hundreds of people visiting the museum daily. But currently, with the museum “an empty building and most of the galleries lying vacant, the work can be carried out comfortably,” says conservation architect Vikas Dilawari, who is overseeing the museum’s restoration project. “The dome study and a full scaffolding reaching right up to the top was a crucial one and a noisy affair. The work now is reaching completion, which was possible due to the lockdown.”

This is, perhaps, one of the few positives that seem to have emerged in the unprecedented times that befell the museum in March. For the last few months, the museum management has been quietly working behind the scenes to gradually reopen to the public again. Since January 4, some of the museum's green spaces have opened to the community – two families a day for two hours each, by prior appointment. The CSMVS Research Library and the Museum Shop restarted its operations in November last year. “And though we are awaiting the State Government’s directives for re-opening museums and monuments in Maharashtra, the curatorial team at the museum here is working hard to open a special exhibition of Tanjore paintings, exhibiting around 70–80 selected paintings out of the 350 recently received from late Shri Kuldip Singh. This exhibition will be inaugurated shortly, if the authorities permit,” says the museum’s director general, Sabyasachi Mukherjee.