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members reccivc intensivc training in Western art abroad and to sec most of the important collection of Western art in the United States and Europę. Other members of its Staff, going abroad on study tours of various kinds, were cncouraged to visit muscums of Western art, to study their cołlcctions, their tcchniques of exhibition, their proccdurcs in conscrvation laboratories, and muscum cducational pro-grammes to the cxtcnt possible. In 1962 the former Head of the National Muscum’s Conserv-ation Laboratory, then Director of the National Muscum, on a Uncsco six-month study travcl grant^ visited European and American con-servation laboratories and consulted with their experts. He also studied cvcrywhcrc gallery and storage provisions for care of Western art. At the same timc many scientists and tcchnicians of the conservation laboratory’s Staff were taking advanced training for varying periods in Western conservation laboratories, including in their studics the tcchniques required for understand-ing hazards and carrying out treatment of oil-paintings and other works of Western art.

The first major event in this long preparation for a collection of Western art, to be cxcmplified in charactcristic original works of art in New Delhi has finally resulted in the exhibition, respcctivcly in Philadelphia and in New Delhi, of reprcscntative original seulptures exchanged by two muscums. The National Muscum, New Delhi, has arranged in a large glassed cnclosure in its temporary exhibition gallery, in the por-tion reserved for major recent accessions, the four Gothic seulptures, two in wood and two in stonc, respectively from France, Southern Germany and Flandcrs (fig.    typical exam-

ples of style and periods, which it has acceptcd from the Philadelphia Muscum of Art. A generał labcl in Flindi and English providcs an explana-tion of Gothic art. In exchangc the National

Muscum presented the Philadelphia Museum of Art with two major South Indian stone sculp-tures of the Chola period (nth century), res-pcctivcly a Jain Tirthankara and Sbiiaasa Beggar (Bhikshatana Murti) (fig. }g). That museum had no significant examples of large-scale early sculp-turc from this part of India and valued greatly thesc cxamplcs, charactcristic in period, style and subjccts, in order to cnrich its representation of Indian art. From the Indian point of vicw, European seulptures of religious subjects in individual saints and in a group composition, from a period of cathcdral building, scems parti-cularly significant for comparative art study.

It should be noted that as the United States has no central govcrnmental authority (ministry or department) in charge of muscums, and the muscums in that country arc either privatc or administered by a local or rcgional govcrnmcnt, in all cases under Boards of Trustees, the ex-change was carricd out dircctly by the two museums (in India needless to say, with the approval of the Ministry of Education, from which the National Museum, New Delhi, now depends dircctly).

Uncsco was kept informed on this succcssful cxchangc and must rcccivc all credit for promot-ing the principle of cxchangc which madę this wclcomc cnrichmcnt of the resources of both museums possible. Other such cxchanges, each according to its individual circumstances, arc under negotiation; completion of such efforts can be expected to take some years, however, judging by the timc requited for this first suc-cessful transaction.

In the interest of muscum devclopment per-haps it is encouraging to report a national by-product of Uncsco’s international promotion of the exchangc of art principle with the aim of enriching and broadening museum cołlcctions in order to make them morę valuablc for cultural

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