BELAGAVI/ BENGALURU: BJP MLC Sashil Namoshi on Tuesday accused Vidhana Soudha authorities of displaying a “fake” painting of social reformer Sri Basavanna in the Anubhava Mantapa on Tuesday morning during Zero Hour. The controversial artwork, Namoshi claimed, is a near-identical copy of a renowned piece by acclaimed painter Khande Rao, raising serious questions about its legitimacy.
“How could the Vidhana Soudha commission and display a fraudulent painting? Why not have the original artist himself create the piece?” Namoshi demanded.
Namoshi revealed to TNIE that he had already written to the authorities, urging them to either obtain permission from Khande Rao or commission a new painting directly. “How can we allow the authorities to present a glaring forgery on a matter of great cultural significance?” he said.
This follows a TNIE expose on December 14 on the much-hyped Anubhava Mantapa painting in Suvarna Vidhana Soudha. The piece, commissioned by Vidhana Soudha authorities and executed by Chitrakala Parishath, has been branded a forgery.
Khande Rao’s son Satish Khande Rao confirmed that the piece was created without his father’s consent. The controversial painting was hurriedly executed by a team including Satish Rao of Chitrakala
Parishath, Srikanth Hegde, Ashok U, Veeresh and Mahesh, in just two weeks despite the usual three-month timeline for such projects. “We were handed a tight deadline in November.
Normally, it takes months to complete an original work. But we were forced to use internet references to meet the demand,” he admitted. He denied it is an outright copy, and pointed out at least 15 differences with the original.