British-era Patna Museum to be closed from June 1 for renovation

The Patna Museum is the oldest museum in Bihar, which was originally planned by the British-era officials who intended to preserve the antiques and artifacts found scattered in several areas in and around Patna

The British-era Patna Museum will be closed from June 1 for renovation during which its galleries will be revamped, and objects rearranged, officials said.

Patna Museum. (File)

“The structure needed conservation while the modification of the display of objects too was being realised. As the galleries are being revamped, it has been decided to stop entry of visitors to Patna Museum from June 1 this year,” Deepak Anand, director, museum directorate, culture department, said.

The renovation works are expected to be over in the next three months, he added.

Besides, the extension of the old museum has also been going on since 2020 and the two structures, which have been constructed on both sides of the original building, are being developed as digital galleries.

These are based on the themes, development of civilisation along the shores of the Ganga River and the glorious history of Patliputra, the capital of ancient age Magadh Kingdom.

The estimated cost of the entire renovation and development works is ₹158 crores.

The Patna Museum is the oldest museum in Bihar, which was originally planned by the British-era officials who intended to preserve the antiques and artifacts found scattered in several areas in and around Patna. In 1915, a makeshift Patna Museum was started at the then commissioner’s bungalow in Patna, which is now the AN Sinha Research Institute (ANSRI).

But, soon the objects were shifted to the Patna high court building and in 1925 the land for present day Patna Museum was identified on Patna-Gaya road, the present day Budh Marg in the city.

The building was designed by Rai Bahadur Bishnu Swarup and in 1928 it was inaugurated by the then governor Sir Hugh Lansdowne Stephenson and was opened for people as the first public museum of undivided Bihar and Orissa Provinces.

The Patna Museum once used to have as its star attractions Yakshi, the Mauryan age sculpture of a woman, Shalbhanjika, image of a woman holding branch of a tree and the Kurkihar bronzes. These have now been shifted to the Bihar Museum and it now has objects belonging to a period after 1764.

“The Patna Museum still has many prized possessions like the Thanka paintings and manuscripts brought by Rahul Sankrityayan from Tibet in the 1930s, the rare paintings, metal art and the thousands of years old fossil,” Deepak Anand said.

There are also the objects of personal use and gifts of Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first President of the country, he added. “All these objects will have dedicated galleries after the renovation work,” he said.