Nepal’s permanent national art collection is trapped inside a building that is in danger of collapse at any time, its chancellor said on Friday.
The Academy of Fine Arts, a neoclassical building in Kathmandu dating from the 1930s, was critically damaged during the earthquake and Ragini Upadhyay, its chancellor, said a vital part of the country’s cultural heritage was at risk. “The building was very damaged, walls collapsed during the earthquake and there are still 700 paintings in there that we haven’t been able to rescue.”
The warning over the fate of the academy came as the UN complained about the slow response of the international community to an appeal for emergency funds to help the millions of people hit by the earthquake on 25 April.
Jamie McGoldrick, the UN’s chief official in Nepal, said the agency had received $22m (£14m) so far against an appeal last week for $415m to support relief efforts for the first three months in the Himalayan nation.
“This needs to be dramatically ramped up,” McGoldrick told reporters in the Nepalese capital.
The devastating earthquake killed more than 7,800 people and injured thousands more. The government figures show that tens of thousands of houses have been demolished and assistance is immediately needed for 400,000 families.
At the art academy a team managed to get inside to rescue the works from a temporary exhibition, but the permanent collection, the only one in the country, is still trapped on the third floor. Upadhyay said: “It contains many valuable works including a great many Thangka paintings.”
Thangka is Tibetan-influenced style of art that dates from the eighth century, which Nima Lama, the curator of the section, called a “living link to Nepal’s past”.
He said: “There are paintings there that date back to the time of Buddha and this traditional style has been passed down the generations. The artists working today are the direct descendants of the those working then.”
Upadhaya, who is an artist herself, said the collection was irreplaceable. It is Nepal’s only national art collection and it contains the oldest works in the country.
“We have nothing older than these paintings left in Nepal because I’m sorry to say that it’s all been sold abroad. It’s in Japan and China and the UK. The country has already lost this part of its cultural history. It’s why it’s so important to try and get these paintings out.”
Government surveyors assessed the building, formerly a royal palace, and said that it was too dangerous to enter, said Upadhaya.
“But then the US embassy rang us and asked if we needed help and we said. ‘Yes! We need to take out the art.’ They were very helpful and told us which parts were most dangerous and we managed to take out the work from the temporary exhibition but we haven’t yet managed to reach the permanent collection.”
The exhibition, which opened just over a week before the earthquake, was a mixture of contemporary and traditional art and although some were damaged in the quake, they have now been removed to a covered courtyard adjacent to the academy. Chipped sculptures, torn canvases and large wooden carvings are all sitting in the open air.
Upadhaya said she hoped the army would be able to come and help within the next couple of days. “But of course, there are so many things in Nepal now which need their attention. But we hope they will be able to help.”
