Back to Assam: British Museum agrees to loan fragile tapestry showing Krishna’s life

The British Museum and the government of Assam agreed to a six-month loan of the 17th-century Vrindavani Vastra, a nine-metre-long tapestry depicting scenes from the life of Krishna, to begin in 2027. Assam’s chief minister pledged to build a new extension to the Assam State Museum in Guwahati to house the textile, which is so fragile it can only be displayed for six months every ten years. British Museum curator Richard Blurton called the work—woven about 350 years ago and featuring Assamese inscriptions—central to Assam’s cultural life; it was last shown publicly in the museum’s 2016 exhibition “Krishna in the Garden of Assam.” The agreement aligns with British Museum director Nicholas Cullinan’s emphasis on “partnership rather than ownership,” including recent and planned international loans such as 80 artefacts to Mumbai on long-term loan.

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