3 galleries of Lahore Museum to be repaired

General Gallery closed for roof work.

LAHORE:

The General Gallery of the Lahore Museum has been closed to patch up the roof to prevent water seepage, marking the start of the first repairs to the building for over a century.

The Islamic and Miniature Galleries as well as four bathrooms at the museum will also undergo repairs this year, said Asim Rizwan, the museum’s public relations officer. No more than one gallery will be closed at a time, Rizwan said. The Punjab government has given the museum about Rs20 million for the repair work, he added.

Architect Nayyar Ali Dada, who did a survey of the roof to assess what repairs were needed, said there were major problems as the Lahore Museum building had not been repaired for over a century. “The roof leaks and needs to be looked after,” he said.

Sabir Khan of the Communication and Works Department, who is supervising the project, said it was a sensitive job. “Repairing everything with the original material will be a challenging task,” he said.

Khan said the electrical wiring in the roof was faulty and the old wooden planks under attack by termites. The steel rods were falling apart and the overlying corrugated sheets were also badly damaged, allowing rainwater to seep in during the monsoons. “This is damaging the walls as well as the artefacts in these galleries,” he said.

Khan said that four bathrooms in the museum would be repaired once the galleries were finished.

Rizwan said museum security officers and gallery curators would personally shift the artefacts from the galleries to the reserves prior to the repair work to avoid any mishandling. The General Gallery, displaying mostly artefacts from the Sikh era and a few Quranic manuscripts, was emptied to begin the repair work about four days ago.

The Miniature Gallery has about 30 miniatures carved on copper and ivory, most of these from the 1840s. The Islamic Gallery displays metal pottery and carpets from the late Mughal era, late 18th Century jewellery from across Punjab, and some Islamic inscriptions dating back to the 7th and 8th centuries.

Seeking anonymity, a museum official said the project could take up to a year to complete if only one gallery is repaired at a time. If it manages to get all the budget at once, it may consider closing for a while for the repairs, said the official. Khawaja Khursheed, the deputy director of the Lahore Museum, said more funds may be requested once the work starts. He anticipates the work to finish by the end of June.

(Read: City treasures - Revamped Lahore Heritage Museum opens next week)

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2012.