Indian court orders seizure of ‘offensive’ paintings

A court in the Indian capital, Delhi, has ordered the seizure of two “offensive” paintings by MF Husain, one of India’s most famous artists.

On Monday, the court granted police permission to seize the artworks after a complaint was filed alleging that the paintings, displayed in an art gallery and featuring two Hindu deities, “hurt religious sentiments.”

Husain, who died in 2011 at the age of 95, often faced backlash for depictions of naked Hindu gods in his paintings.

The Delhi Art Gallery (DAG), which organized the exhibition, said in a statement that it is “not a party to the legal proceedings and is seeking legal advice.”

The paintings were part of an exhibition called Husain: The Timeless Modernist, which displayed more than 100 works at DAG from October 26 to December 14.

The complainant, lawyer Amita Sachdeva, claimed in

On December 10, Ms. Sachdeva reported that she visited the gallery with the investigator and discovered that the paintings had been removed. He claimed that gallery officials claimed they had never exhibited the paintings.

The BBC has contacted DAG for comment.

The paintings Sachdeva shared online showed Hindu gods Ganesha and Hanuman alongside naked female figures. He also alleged that the Delhi Police had not filed a report.

He later asked the court to preserve CCTV footage from the gallery during the period when the paintings were allegedly on display, according to media reports.

On Monday, a judge at Delhi’s Patiala courts said the police had accessed the footage and submitted their report. According to the investigation, the exhibition was held in a private space and had the sole objective of showing the artist’s original work, the judge added.

The art gallery said in a statement that they are “reviewing the situation” and “trying to follow developments.”

Maqbool Fida Husain was one of India’s greatest painters and was called “India’s Picasso”, but his art often sparked controversy in the country. His works have sold for millions of dollars.

His career was marked by controversy when he was accused of obscenity and denounced by Hindu hardliners over a painting of a naked goddess.

In 2006, Husain publicly apologized for his painting, Mother India. It showed a naked woman kneeling on the ground creating the shape of the Indian map. He left the country that same year and lived in self-imposed exile in London until his death.

In 2008, the Supreme Court of India refused to initiate criminal proceedings against Husainsaying that his paintings were not obscene and that nudity was common in Indian iconography and history.

The court later dismissed an appeal against a Supreme Court ruling quashing criminal proceedings against Husain in the cities of Bhopal, Indore and Rajkot, condemning the rise of a “new puritanism” in India.

The court also rejected calls to summon Husain, then in exile, and ask him to explain his paintings, which were accused of outraging religious sentiments and disturbing national integrity.

“There are so many such topics, photographs and publications. Will they file lawsuits against all of them? What about the temple structures? Husain’s work is art. If you don’t want to see it, don’t see it. There are so many ways to such art on temple structures,” the top court said.

Many believe there is a rising wave of illiberalism against artistic expression in India.

In October, the Bombay High Court reprimanded the customs department for confiscating artworks by renowned artists FN Souza and Akbar Padamsee as “obscene material”.

The court ruled that not all nude or sexually explicit paintings qualify as obscene and ordered the release of seven seized works of art.

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