Indian museums to share collections with British Museum

Iconic objects and works of art from the collections of museums across the Indian subcontinent will be showcased along with important art pieces from the British Museum collection at an upcoming exhibition in Mumbai.
Titled, "India and the World: A History in Nine Stories", the show that will be hosted at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) in collaboration with the British Museum and the National Museum, New Delhi, will celebrate 70 years of Indian independence.
The exhibits from across the globe, will be brought together in confluence, with each group representing an important moment in India's history and positioned within a global context to explore connections and comparisons between India and the rest of the world.

The exhibition will be complemented by an event on February 3, that will see the directors of the three museums in a discussion that will dig deeper into how institutions like the British Museum can share objects from their collection with different audiences.
"They demonstrate the potential that individual objects have to unlock diverse stories and histories. The exhibition provides tools for teachers to share these narratives and help students enjoy moments in Indian history in ways that have seldom been addressed in our schools.
"Shown together for the first time, the objects speak not only to each other but to everyone, providing an opportunity for discourse and cross-cultural encounters," organisers said.

The collections on display will include a wide variety of objects ranging from figurative representations and large-scale sculptures to inscriptions and coins, paintings, jewellery and tools.

"The treasures from the Indian collections and the British Museum will be carefully chosen to lead and encourage debate. The aim is to engage visitors to explore not only similarities, but also differences. This helps us understand how we relate to the world today," organisers said.
The exhibition, which was first conceived by Neil MacGregor, former Director of the British Museum and Sabyasachi Mukherjee, director of CSMVS, has be co-curated by Naman Ahuja, art historian and curator and J D Hill, curator at the British Museum.

The show will move to Delhi in March 2018.