Coimbatore: Raise your hand if you know where the government museum in the city is located.
Tucked away between the shops at the Nehru Stadium, opposite the VOC Zoological Park, the museum houses about 600 exhibits, many of them rare. Now, the officials of the department of museums have launched a search for a bigger, better building to shift it, which they hope will make it more accessible to people.
They had been searching for a suitable place in the city to shift the artefacts for quite some time, an official said. The search started after they received a communication from the ministry of Tamil official language, Tamil culture and archaeology asking them to scout for suitable places in the district to shift the collection.
"There are state government museums in 20 districts. But, only four of them have own buildings. So, the ministry asked us to find places in those districts, which do not have own museum buildings, to shift the artefacts," an official said.
"In Coimbatore, we are still searching for a place. We have not finalised anything. We are also looking to purchase a building to shift the collection. If we fail to find a suitable building, we would buy land and construct one," the official told TOI.
The museum has an enviable and sizeable collection of artefacts ranging from stone-age tools to seventh century stone sculptures to palm leaf manuscripts. An impressive artefact is the temple chariot of Avinashilingeshwarar Temple, which was partially damaged in a fire accident in 1992. The wooden sculptures from the salvaged chariot are also on display. Several other parts of the chariot are kept in the museum's depository, an official said. "Apart from this, the museum has an extensive collection of rare stamps and coins," he added.
The museum was started in 1990 in Saibaba Colony. Later, it was shifted to the premises of the government school in Kattur. In 2009, it was again shifted to its current location, near the bustling VOC Park.
