Priceless art & architecture lying buried due to neglect: VP

: Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu Saturday called for measures to restore cultural heritage as many priceless treasures of art and architecture were lying buried due to neglect.

It must be a collective responsibility to clear the debris as a number of shrines concealing valuable treasures lie neglected, he said.

Naidu was here to unveil a book "Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam: Preserving Antiquity for Posterity", a compilation of the conservation project undertaken at the 500-year-old temple.

The conservation work has won the UNESCO Award of Merit for Cultural Heritage Conservation in the Asia-Pacific region.

In his address after releasing the book, Naidu noted that the Ranganathaswamy Temple had lost its sheen due to neglect and due to disuse with the passage of time.

The government of Tamil Nadu had appointed the Indian Culture Heritage Trust and Venugopalaswamy Kainkaryam Trust to take up the conservation project, he said.

Stating that the restoration work was not easy, he said, "India has many priceless treasures of art and architecture largely buried under the weight of relative neglect and inertia."