PM urged to form commission to probe 137 lost paintings from NAG

Artists and art experts have urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to form an independent high level commission to probe the case of Anwar Jalal Shemza’s paintings scandal and other 137 lost paintings from the National Art Gallery (NAG), being run by the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA).

Speaking at a webinar, the participants agreed to have judges, former director generals of PNCA, senior artists and art experts, representatives of the investigation agencies, and a representative of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as members of the proposed inquiry commission. The participants suggested that the proposed commission should be directly under the prime minister’s office for an independent and fair probe.

The participating artists also highlighted grave concerns over the inability of NAB to take action.

“The apex cultural organisation of the Pakistan government would become useless if urgent steps are not taken by the prime minister,” they added.

Hosted and conducted by journalist and broadcaster Munir Ahmed, the webinar was organised by the Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) on Sunday.

Well-known artist and former director general PNCA, Jamal Shah termed the rebuttal over the Shemza painting scandal “a bunch of lies”. He said the present PNCA chief should have made public the decades old correspondence or any letters written to the government, by his wife, asking to return Shemza’s paintings.

“She has committed a severe crime on the shoulders of the PNCA present BOG which should be probed by a high level independent commission under the supervision of the Prime Minister’s office.”

Shah said that Naeem Tahir and Mian Ijaz ul Hassan have already presented the facts about Shemza’s donation to the National Art Gallery and see connivance in the return of the Shemza’s paintings.

On the other hand, renowned Pakistani artist Mansur Rahi has refused to accept any responsibility for the decision to return AJ Shemza’s paintings as a chairperson of the PNCA BOG committee.

“I attended one where I spoke about the art collection and art stuff and the importance of the national art gallery. I have hearing deficiency these days, Haajra (his wife) facilitated me in learning what was happening there. They never asked me to join them again for any meeting but one day a PNCA staff came over and asked me to sign a paper as I had attended a meeting. I signed it without asking Haajra to read it to me as she was sleeping,” Rahi said.

Nahida Raza, Ahmed Habib, Riffat Khattak, Samia Nazir, Riffat Ara Baig, Zainab Qayyum, Shagufta Khan, Sumera Shehzad and several other artists also supported the suggestion to form a high level independent commission under the prime minister's office to have transparent probe on the lost paintings and the scandal surrounding AJ Shemza’s paintings.

In a separate statement, Jamal Shah said, “I had abstained from issuing any statement as former DG PNCA but the new regime is desperately trying to hide their not-so-sincere designs by blaming previous regimes for being negligent hence here is my version.”

Shah stated upon his appointment at PNCA, an enquiry had been formed and FIR reports filed against those responsible for the missing artwork, and forwarded to the board. Furthermore, PNCA had received notice for the return of Shemza’s paintings from Aasma Jahangir’s law firm.

“The case was also put up before the board and the board was unanimous that the work should not be returned and that Mary should be contacted. Later, Rukhsana Khan met me with the request and I politely told her that the issue is complicated and a certain inquiry is also being done by FIA, therefore, I will not be able to return the work. I told her to request Mary to give us irrefutable proofs and also reconsider her demand for return. She understood my point and did not pursue the notice which was sent by the law firm”, Shah added.

“Frankly I had not seen most of the letters being circulated these days with the exception of one list of Shamza’s 10 paintings from 1985 with prices such as Rs4800 to Rs5000 plus, but that in my opinion was not a good enough reason for returning the work. I have recently come across the BBC report and also came to know that Mary was here in 2005 or 2007 with Shamza’s work which was exhibited in NCA during Sajda Vandal’s tenure through Mariam Habib. Sajda had bought two paintings for 30,000 each while one was gifted by Mary to NCA.”

Shah claimed the BBC report on the missing paintings to be "unprofessional and sensationalised" as it didn’t include remarks from him, the former DG, or Mian Ejaz ul Hassan.

“According to BBC these paintings were hidden somewhere through a sinister plan which is untrue as Shemza’s work was always displayed very proudly and it was even included in one of my curated exhibitions called Iconic Presence in 2007 and widely published.”

He upholds that there was correspondence between Naeem Tahir and Mary concerning the condition of Shemza’s paintings, dated back to 2009.

“This email and a few other letters which have surfaced now should be sent for a forensic inspection because I, as DG, never saw them which is why I had asked Rukhsana to get me irrefutable documents.”

Shah added, “The question is why Mary was not interested in taking Shamza’s paintings back when she was here herself? I am sure Naeem Tahir Sahib would have entertained her as he also knew Shamza and could have happily paid the modest price which Sajda had paid for the two paintings."

Shah said that Mary never asked for those paintings as she did not want to claim them, however, after his work fetched a good price in the auction, we suddenly see Salima, as Mary’s agent, demand the return of Shamza’s work and later on Rukhsana being authorised as his heir. "Rukhsana was always in Pakistan but her becoming his heiress in 2017, seems like a poorly cooked story but the new government for no good reasons decides to hand over PNCA and Lok Virsa to Shafqat Mehmood on his request. Everybody knows that Shafqat is related to Salima which is why the first thing he inquires about from me on his first official visit to PNCA was the return of Shamza’s work. My reply to him was that the issue is complicated which is why I couldn’t return those ten paintings."

"As soon as I end my tenure, he brings in new people, a new board and the first thing on the agenda in the very first meeting becomes Shamza’s work. He leaves the BOG meeting immediately after approving the first item on agenda and the works are returned in a strange haste to Rukhsana.” Shah added.

The matter came to light after the National Artists Association of Pakistan (NAAP) wrote to the Federal Minister for Education and Heritage Shafqat Mehmood, alerting him to the issue.

Renowned artist and former PNCA director-general Naeem Tahir said that this should not have happened. He explained that once an artist has donated their work and it is included in the national gallery’s inventory, it becomes a national treasure and no one has the right to claim it as their property or to make a decision on returning it, whatever the conditions may be.