NEW DELHI, Dec 27: Hindu extremists on Thursday stormed an exhibition of works by celebrated Indian Muslim artist Maqbool Fida Husain in protest at his earlier paintings of nude Hindu goddesses, police said.
Two Shiv Sena (Lord Shiva’s Army) activists slipped through a police cordon disguised as art lovers at the India International Centre in New Delhi where the self-exiled 92-year artist’s works went on display on Thursday, police said.
The pair chanted “M.F. Husain, die, die” and hurled pro-Hindu pamphlets at visitors, an officer, who declined to be named, added.
“Only two men could manage to enter the gallery and they attacked a painting of the artist,” the officer said.
They damaged a lithograph of a painting of Mughal-era emperor Akbar but police overpowered them before they could harm a second work, an eyewitness said.
On display were 20 prints of Husain’s paintings which are normally stored at the artist’s home in London and billed as a tribute to the history of Indian cinema. They did not include the disputed works.
Some of Husain’s original signed paintings have sold for more than one million dollars at art auctions in London.
The organisers ignored threats by the Shiv Sena not to hold the exhibit after police offered protection.
The display was the first major exhibition of Husain’s works in the Indian capital in nearly 20 years.
Husain has lived in voluntary exile in London and Dubai for the past two years to escape court cases filed over his paintings depicting nude Hindu deities.—AFP
