Bengaluru government museum closed for one year

Bengaluru: Bengaluru Government Museum, which narrates the past glory of ancient society and inscriptions, has been useful for students and history buffs for the past one and a half centuries. But now the ancient museum has been banned for one year.

Bangalore Government Museum of Oriental Museum and Heritage Department is one of the oldest museums established in 1865. It was previously located on what is now Museum Road, then the museum was moved in 1877 to a museum building near present day Kasturba Road on Old Sydney Road. From then till today, for 150 years, public, school children and historians used to come here to see various artefacts including inscriptions and weapons used during war. But now restrictions have been imposed on the public for the reconstruction of the old building and access has been restricted for one year.

Still the museum is the oldest building built in Greek-Roman style. A part of the building, the first floor is constructed using timber and the second floor is constructed using lime plaster of Madras Terrace Roofing. Adjacent to this, another building has been constructed with RCC pillars in the same pattern. Still, because this building is old, there are cracks everywhere and it is leaking everywhere due to rain. Therefore, the Karnataka Tourism Department has investigated this and is going to renovate the building at a cost of Rs 8.5 crores.

This museum has about 6,000 artefacts from the time of Emperor Ashoka to the history of Vijayanagara. The artefacts have been shifted to the adjacent K Venkatappa Art Gallery for preservation until the building is renovated. Officials said that in the coming days digitization is being done through audio video so that everyone can know about these ancient heritage works.The artefacts that are still outside have been preserved without any problems. The museum will be closed for one year and the history of ancient times will take a new form through digitization and will come forward as the first digitization museum in the state.