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‘Almaty Museum of Arts’ Marks a New Chapter for Central Asian Culture

2025-09-16 0 comments

On September 12, 2025, Kazakhstan opened the Almaty Museum of Arts—its latest museum built to international standards and designed to host major art exhibitions. This is more than another cultural facility; it is a statement of ambition. Almaty has long been a regional hub, and this museum aims to tie together local artistic heritage, global conversations, and infrastructure strong enough to support both. With modern galleries, climate control, conservation spaces, wet and dry workshops, and […]

From Souvenir Shops to Cultural Stewardship:India’s New Heritage Initiative

2025-09-14 0 comments

The Archaeological Survey of India’s Piloted Model for Heritage Commerce The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has recently announced an initiative that may finally bridge the awkward gap between history as something you passively observe and history as something you can take home. At 55 select monuments, ranging from Qutub Minar to Gol Gumbaz, the ASI will transform its existing publication counters into full-fledged souvenir shops. These shops will stock replicas, craft items, and heritage-inspired […]

Assam Preserves a Legend: Kuthori House to Become Bhupen Hazarika Museum

2025-09-13 0 comments

In a significant move toward preserving cultural memory, the Assam government has recently acquired the Kuthori house of Bhupen Hazarika, including seven bighas of land, for about ₹2.51 crore. The plan is to restore and transform it into a museum or cultural centre that honours the legendary musician’s legacy. Kuthori, near Kaziranga, holds special meaning: it was among the places where Hazarika wrote and composed many of his iconic songs. This step comes in his […]

Letters, Legacy, and Language: Kerala’s Museum of Letters Gets a ₹15 Crore Makeover

2025-09-08 0 comments

Kottayam, Kerala—affectionately called the “City of Letters”—is adding a new chapter to its literary lineage. India’s first Museum of Letters and Literature is set to receive a ₹15 crore expansion funded by KIIFB (Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board). This isn’t just bricks and mortar—it’s a symbolic, sophisticated celebration of linguistic diversity. With new galleries, digitisation labs, and conservation units on the way, the museum is staking a claim as a rare cultural institution in India, […]

Return of the Sacred: Madagascar Receives Ancestral Skulls from France

2025-09-04 0 comments

In a moment of solemn reckoning, France returned three colonial-era human skulls to Madagascar in late August 2025. This comes 128 years after they were taken following a violent confrontation. Among them is believed to be the skull of King Toera of the Sakalava people, decapitated by French troops in 1897. This restitution, under France’s 2023 law, marks a significant, if belated, step toward repairing colonial-era wrongs. But it’s also a reminder of how many […]

The Vanished Masterpiece: When Nazi-Looted Art Goes Missing Again

2025-09-03 0 comments

The Long Shadow of Nazi Loot: Stolen, Spotted, and Gone Again Imagine a painting, nearly eight decades lost to the annals of wartime chaos, suddenly reappearing in plain sight and then disappearing once more under the shadow of suspicion. That is the perplexing story behind Portrait of a Lady by Italian master Giuseppe Ghislandi. Originally looted from Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker during the Nazi era, its reappearance in Argentina has reopened painful chapters of […]

When A Museum Never Opens: Mizoram’s Unused Cultural Gift

2025-09-03 0 comments

Built, But Never Opened: Where Planning Went Missing Mizoram’s State Museum, completed over a decade ago, remains locked and unused, a monument to good intent and poor execution. Funded by a ₹3 crore central government grant with a ₹62 lakh state contribution, its construction began in 2007 and was wrapped up by 2012. Yet, it continues to lay idle for over 12 years, thanks to delays in furnishing and handover. This isn’t just a building; […]

Weaving Diplomacy: Pashmina and Parchin Kari Become Cultural Emissaries

2025-09-02 0 comments

Handcrafted Gifts that Speak Across Oceans In a world where statecraft often unfolds in boardrooms and summit halls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose a softer, more elegant stage for diplomacy during his recent visit to Japan. Presenting exquisite traditional Indian artifacts as gifts, he offered not just tokens, but touchpoints—conversations in cloth and stone. These were more than gestures: they were cultural bridges reinforced with craft and subtlety that has been practiced in India for […]

Vrindavani Vastra Comes Home: Sankardeva’s Legacy, Assam’s Heritage, and the Future of Shared Custodianship

2025-09-01 0 comments

The Journey of a Textile Across Borders and Centuries Assam is preparing for a reunion centuries in the making. The Vrindavani Vastra, a 16th-century textile masterpiece woven under the guidance of saint-reformer Srimanta Sankardeva, is set to return on loan from the British Museum for an exhibition in 2027. For 18 months, this sacred fabric—currently preserved thousands of miles away—will be displayed in Assam in a specially built museum. The news is both poetic and […]

When Van Gogh Meets the Courts: Museums, Money, and the Law

2025-09-01 0 comments

A Museum at Risk of Going Dark The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is, on paper, one of the most successful cultural institutions in Europe. With millions of visitors a year and a self-financing rate that most museums can only dream of (around 85% of its income is generated internally), you would think it is comfortably solvent. But behind the sunflower prints and café lattes lies a problem no gift shop can solve: the building […]