DAWN'S news story on Lahore's Permanent Art Gallery reads like an epitaph for some precious masterpieces. Allah Bakhsh, Colin David, Sadequain, Anna Molka Ahmed, Shamza, Ahmed Pervaiz, Saeed Akhtar etc make the catalogue for the wrong reasons. They are among the unfortunate artists whose works have been damaged for want of care, which in turn is said to be the result of the lack of funding. In total some 76 of 170-odd treasure pieces in the gallery are damaged “20 per cent” to “90 per cent”. The older canvases appear to be fighting their last battle for survival. These include Sohni Mahiwal and Mahabharata by Ustad Allah Bakhsh which officials in the overseeing Lahore Arts Council say are more or less completely damaged. With “50 per cent damage”, pieces by Anna Molka Ahmed and Colin David are for now breathing relatively more freely, but they are as defenceless from further ravages.

The news story unveils the apathy that is reflected in these pictures and it identifies for whom the gallery was set up in 1996: “…students, researchers, tourists and art lovers”. The sad state the exhibits are in today is indicative that not enough tourists and lovers of art have turned up for the administration to give any thought to generating funds through an entrance fee. This leaves those running the gallery with the option of a government grant. It's been 20 months since a preservation scheme was approved which required a mere Rs4m for execution. Even that turned out to be too high a demand and as yet there is no funding as a heartless government stumbles through a crash course in the art of running public affairs. Perhaps the shock reminder will convince it that an attempt to rescue the Permanent Art Gallery can still earn it some popular marks.