collectors callingrid albuquerquethe heart is many chambered and the deep impact that both sarladevi and husband basant kumar birla had on this city recently came not from money or intelligence or a manysplendoured upbringing but from true knowledge of art laced with refinement they brought some of the most exquisite works of art ever seen to bangalores chitrakala parishat last week for an exhibition and sale entitled tradition modernity in bengal theyve had exhibitions in other major metros but for bangalore it was a first and that is why since they were not acquainted with the bangalore art market i decided to prepare them for the possibility that many of their potential clients would try to bargain over prices this is a unique bangalorean artplace trait their faces took on a slightly horrified look bargaining oh no we will not accept such offers we dont believe in haggling said bkb in fact when theyd started the birla academy of art and culture in calcutta in 1967 the original policy of the gallery was not to accept any kind of commission from the artists who exhibited their work there it was only later when other galleries sprang up and started operating commercially that we had to consider doing the same and even then my husband and i would have a lot of arguments over it remembers sarladevi this gracious lady embodiment of feminity from a greatlymissed era had always been interested in art and dabbled a little with paints but it was only after her marriage to a scion of the birla family that her husbands deep involvement in art became an absorbing passion that was to last for a lifetime they started out with an attachment for english art and french art till at one point nc mehta one of the towering art personalities in this country and another great art expert ramkumar kejriwal father of our own hk kejriwal directed their attention to the fact that india had artists of equal if not greater merit and thats when their love affair with art collection began in earnest paintings sculpture textiles especially terracotta at that time the desire was for ancient and not modern art says saraladevi they are the biggest individual art collectors in india and they have enviable pieces from every school of art including from the court of the great mughal emperor akbar how they got the rajamnamma history of the world a book which has a painting on one side of the spine and description scripted on the other according to the grapevine a single painting from there would fetch a price of rs 2 crore today is engrossing in itself since it was part of a trust the owner shanti vijay was prepared to accept only official money for the collection only bkb and saraladevi were in a position to accept those terms another time when they came to know that 80 malwa paintings were in the market they were consumed with a desire