Bhopal’s Bharat Bhavan Under Tarpaulin As Leaking Roof Threatens Priceless Art Collection
The iconic modern art gallery at Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal has been reduced to empty halls as rain‑filled leaks force curators to strip the walls of their displays.
Heavy monsoon showers have driven staff to drape black tarpaulin over large sections of the 46‑year‑old roof, weighing it down with stones and broken brick to keep the sheets from blowing away. The makeshift cover now dominates the skyline above the Upper Lake.
More than fifty works have been hurriedly moved to storage, including pieces by Sudhir Patwardhan, Suresh Chaudhary, Rajesh Ambalkar, and Sejal Singh. The gallery normally showcases around three hundred paintings at a time, drawn from a permanent collection of over two thousand masterpieces by legends such as M.F. Husain, S.H. Raza, V.S. Gaitonde, Satish Gujral, and Tyeb Mehta, many valued in the hundreds of crores.
Officials acknowledge that the building urgently needs a structural overhaul. Until a comprehensive renovation is approved, temporary measures like the tarpaulin and relocation of artworks are the only safeguards against water damage and fungal decay.