Air India has finally found the Jatin Das painting! The missing painting made headlines a fortnight ago when the artist claimed that a painting he made in 1991 for Air India had been stolen and reached the open market. The horizontal oil painting is titled ‘Flying Apsara’ and was commissioned by Air India in 1991. It all came into limelight when Das was contacted to authenticate his work. But what comes to a surprise was the recovery was much of a drama as it emerged that the painting was taken, or call it stolen, by a former executive director on her retirement over a decade ago and forgot to return it.
On July 10, in a mysterious circumstance, a courier was received at Air India Delhi headquarters from a fictitious Gurgaon address. The courier had the missing painting worth Rs 1.5 crore wrapped in a paper. Meanwhile, an internal committee was set to investigate the issue. It was soon discovered that the painting was last seen in the executive director’s office in Delhi a decade ago and after her retirement, no one had seen the painting. On July 13, the executive director was called for an enquiry and she revealed that the painting was with her but it was gifted and not stolen.
The incident leads us to an awkward question, how many such artworks of Air India are with the former top bosses who have forgotten to return. It is kind of an unspoken tradition of the Air India staff where the head honchos borrow the paintings or art work from the office to decorate their personal space and later forget to return it. It seems that the Air India will have to write formal letters to its former employees to return the artworks if they have forgotten to do so.
According to a report, Air India’s collection boasted 7,000 pieces of renowned artists including Jatin Das, Anjolie Ela Menon, VS Gaitonde and KA Ara, among others. Unfortunately, at present, there are 3,500 artworks across all its offices.
