• KMC claims artworks of Seffy Soomro are with them and he can claim them by showing receipt
• The artist says he will take back his paintings but also wants to be compensated

KARACHI: It sounds like a plot right out of a mystery novel. A group exhibition is held. After the show, one of the artists inquires about his two paintings on display. He’s told that his artworks have disappeared. A couple of years later he sees the two paintings in a scene of a TV drama and gets utterly flummoxed by it… It does sound mysterious. What if it has an anticlimactic end to it? Then the whole enigma will evaporate into thin air.

The reference here is to the claim that the artist Seffy Soomro, who hails from Daharki, has made. He says he had two of his paintings on view at an exhibition held at Frere Hall in 2017. Once the show ended, Soomro asked the organisers about his artworks and was told that they had disappeared. He accepted the answer. Cut to seven years later, he sees those two works of art displayed in a room shown in a TV play titled Kabhi Main Kabhi Tum. Disgruntled and infuriated, he posted the story on social media, blaming the Frere Hall administration for the unsavoury turn of events.

When the news spread like wild fire, Frere Hall officials came out with a statement that after the exhibition, they had put out an advert saying that the paintings on view in 2017 could be reclaimed.

The production house that has produced the drama also clarified its position stating that the location where the scene was shot as well as the assets seen in it were rented.

Dawn got in touch with M Saleem, the curator at the Sadequain Art Gallery (Frere Hall) where the show had taken place. He said, “The artist is not contacting us. He wants money. We have said that give us the receipt (raseed) and take your work back. He has blocked our numbers. The paintings are on display at the gallery from 2017. When any event happens there, we remove the artworks to make way for that event’s exhibits.”

KMC’s Senior Director-Culture and Sports Raza Abbas Rizvi said, “Yes, his paintings are there. The procedure is that whoever puts their work display gets a receipt from us. Once the show is over, he returns the receipt and takes back the artwork. We are still saying to him that give us the receipt and take your paintings.”

Responding to Soomro’s allegation that he was told that the paintings had gone missing, Mr Rizvi said, “He could have shown us the receipt and held us responsible for it then. Besides, the usual understanding is that the organisers are not responsible for anyone who comes after a month to collect their artwork… This has all been done to create social media hype.”

When Dawn spoke with Mr Soomro, he said: “The exhibition happened in 2017. After it ended, I asked about my paintings. They replied that mine, along with works of two or three other artists, had disappeared. I thought since the others weren’t protesting against it, I should keep quiet. But then I saw the exhibits in a TV play.”

The artist said while he did have the receipt at the time of delivering the paintings seven years ago, he now doesn’t have it. He, at the time, didn’t feel the need to produce the receipt since other artists were not making any noise about it.

“Now I will take back my paintings and I also want to be compensated (azala) for it because my works may have been used in other places apart from the drama that I saw,” he said.

Answering the question whether the organisers approached him for the exhibition in 2017, Mr Soomro replied he came to know about the show through social media.

The story has gotten so big that the Sindh government has launched an inquiry into it.

Who’s telling the truth remains to be seen… The fact is, the entire saga is no less dramatic and mysterious than TV dramas, and some wily writer might turn it into a play in the future.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2024