Now, you can get replicas of rare artefacts at your doorstep
If you are one of those who love history and want to keep a piece of it in your drawing room, here is a good news.
Allahabad Museum has decided to get custom-made replicas of centuries-old stone and terracotta artefacts that adorn its galleries. The replicas will be delivered at the doorsteps of those who want them, albeit at a price.
The museum is the proud owner of hundreds of artefacts of Gupta, Shung and Kushan dynasties, besides some rare 11th century carvings of Khajuraho. The move would enable visitors to order a displayed artefact, including a digital print of rare paintings, at three counters set up at the entrance gate of the museum. There will be three guides available at counters to help visitors know about the process of getting replicas, mode of payment and other information on objects sought by them.
These replicas will be created by experienced sculptors of the museum in different sizes and prize brackets for the convenience of customers.
“It was noticed that visitors coming to the museum had no choice but to return after viewing the objects kept in the galleries. Many of them had often urged us to make arrangements to provide replicas of these historical artefacts. Keeping this in mind, the museum has now decided to provide replicas,” said Rajesh Purohit, director, Allahabad Museum.
“However, these replicas will not be the total imitation of the objects in terms of size and shape. They will be either larger or smaller than the actual size of the objects due to security issues,” he added.
Purohit said an art lover could place orders on terracotta and stone objects, some of which include the exquisite pieces of Gajalakshmi, standing Lakshmi on lotus in the terracotta collection, and stone sculptures from the dynasties of Bharhut, Kushana, Gupta as well as the 11th century carvings from Khajuraho.
The list of stone sculptures also include the tasseled head of Shiva projecting out from a stone linga which portrays classical purity of Gupta art, a blue schist Bodhisattva resembling the image of Greek God Apollo and the bejewelled Yakshis from Jamsot.