BBC News, Delhi
A court in India’s capital, Delhi, has ordered the seizure of two “offensive” paintings by MF Husain, one of India’s most famous artists.
A court on Monday gave police permission to seize the artworks after a complaint was filed alleging that the paintings, displayed at an art gallery and depicting two Hindu deities, “hurt religious sentiments”.
Husain, who died in 2011 at the age of 95, often faced criticism for depicting naked Hindu gods in his paintings.
The Delhi Art Gallery (DAG), which held the exhibition, said in a statement that it was “not a party to the legal proceedings and is seeking legal advice”.
The paintings were part of an exhibition titled Husain: The Timeless Modernist, which features more than 100 works at DAG from October 26 to December 14.
The complainant, Amita Sachdeva, a lawyer, told X that on December 4 she took photographs of the “offensive images” displayed at the DAG and, after investigating previous complaints against the late artist, lodged a complaint with the police five days later.
On December 10, Ms. Sachdeva reported that she visited the gallery with an investigator, only to find that the paintings had been removed. She claimed that the gallery officials claimed that they had never exhibited the paintings.
The BBC has contacted DAG for comment.
The images Ms Sachdeva shared online show the Hindu gods Ganesha and Hanuman alongside nude female figures. She also alleged that the Delhi Police did not file a report.
She 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 House court said the police had accessed the footage and submitted their report. According to the inquiry, the exhibition was held in a private space and was intended exclusively to exhibit the artist’s original work, the judge added.
The art gallery said in a statement that they are “reviewing the situation” and “trying to monitor developments.”
Maqbool Fida Husain was one of India’s greatest painters and was called the “Picasso of India”, but his art often caused 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 condemned by hard-line Hindus for depicting a naked goddess.
In 2006, Husain publicly apologized for his painting Mother India. It shows a naked woman kneeling on the ground creating the shape of an Indian map. In the same year, he left the country 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 images are not obscene and nudity is common in Indian iconography and history.
The court then dismissed an appeal against a high court ruling quashing criminal cases against Husain in the cities of Bhopal, Indore and Rajkot, condemning the rise of a “new puritanism” in India.
The court also rejected calls for Husain, then in exile, to be summoned and asked to explain his paintings, which were accused of offending religious sentiments and disrupting national integrity.
“There are so many such items, photographs and publications. Are you going to file a case against all of them? What about temple structures? Husain’s work is art. If you don’t want to see it, don’t look at it. There are so many such art forms in temple structures” , said the Supreme Court.
Many believe that there is a rising tide of illiberalism against artistic expression in India.
In October Bombay High Court the customs department reprimanded for seizing artworks by renowned artists FN Souza and Akbar Padamsee on the grounds that they were “obscene material”.
The court ruled that not every nude or sexually explicit image can be qualified as obscene and ordered the release of seven confiscated works of art.
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