section_path: Corporate affairs and identity/Art collection
section_name: Art collection
paragraph_text: Art collection
  
  Air India maintained a collection of Indian art from 1956 comprising works of important Indian artists and photographers, sculptures, wood carvings, glass paintings, rare textiles etc. The artworks were often sent to be hung in Air India booking offices around the world and used in promotional material. In 1967, the company commissioned ashtrays from Salvador Dalí and gifted an elephant calf as payment. In 2010, a plan to establish a museum from the collection was stalled and the artworks reside in a building in Nariman Point, Mumbai. Air India organized the first ever exhibition of these art at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi, titled Air India Salutes Indian Masters in 2013. Following a memorandum of understanding agreed between the airline and the Ministry of Culture, the art collection was transferred to the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in Mumbai in January 2023. The art was put up for exhibition titled Maharaja's Treasure: Select Works of Art from the Famed Air India Collection.
  
  Air India maintained a collection of Indian art from 1956 comprising works of important Indian artists and photographers, sculptures, wood carvings, glass paintings, rare textiles etc. The artworks were often sent to be hung in Air India booking offices around the world and used in promotional material. In 1967, the company commissioned ashtrays from Salvador Dalí and gifted an elephant calf as payment. In 2010, a plan to establish a museum from the collection was stalled and the artworks reside in a building in Nariman Point, Mumbai. Air India organized the first ever exhibition of these art at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi, titled Air India Salutes Indian Masters in 2013. Following a memorandum of understanding agreed between the airline and the Ministry of Culture, the art collection was transferred to the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in Mumbai in January 2023. The art was put up for exhibition titled Maharaja's Treasure: Select Works of Art from the Famed Air India Collection.