BANGALORE: Famous painter Svetslav Roerich and his wife Devika Rani had decided to leave India if the Karnataka Government acquires their property.

The couple’s secretary, Mary Joyce Poonacha said that they would carry with them their paintings and other belongings. She did not specify where they would migrate to.

Poonacha said the couple had not set any deadline for the State Government to accept their demand that their property be left untouched.

But the Government is pressing ahead with its decision to promulgate an ordinance to lake over the Roerich’s’ property which includes real estate, arte facts, carvings, and jewelry.

It has obtained the approval of the Union Government for establishing a trust to look after the administration and management of the Roerich estate, and for offering compensation of Rs 5 crore to the couple. But the painter and his wife say the property is worth several times more,

An independent confirmation of the threat to leave India could not be obtained from the couple, But the threat itself is likely to take a long time to be carried out as the couple’s secretary and aides are preparing for a legal battle to establish their right to the 243-acre estate, 22 km from Bangalore city.

We do not want the Karnataka Government to convert the estate into a botan 2al garden,” Poonacha said,

Roerich, (88) has been living ina two-bed room suite of a luxury hotel in Bangalore for the past three years. They moved there from their farm house because of medical problems resulting from old age.

Both of them suffer from problems like loss of hearing, weak sight and occasional loss of memory. They cannot walk unaided. They need constant medical attention.

Russian Ambassador Anatoly Drukov met Chief Minister S. Bangarappa in Bangalore recently, apparently in a bid to persuade the State government to give up its plan to take over the Roerich’s’ property, but he seems to have failed in his mission,

Poonacha, however, said the Ambassador would continue to be on the side of the Roerichs.

In an attempt to pre-empt the Kamataka Government’s move, the Roerichs inaugurated their own 15-member trust on June 15 with five Russians as members one .

American and one Australian, Poonacha is the secretary of looking after the farm.

An industrialist who has laid claim to 141 acres of the Roerich ” state, apart from the existing 243 _ acres, says that the painter and his wife are being held prisoner in the hotel by an inner circle of people who have an eye on their property.

The Karnataka Government’s draft ordinance stipulates that the estate of the Roerichs and the transferees to whom the lands had been alienated by way of sale, gift, mortgage, lease or otherwise on or after January 1,1991, shall stand transferred to and vest absolutely — in the State Government from the  a date of notification through a — special gazette.

Article extracted from this publication >> July 17, 1992