“Sound of Wisdom,” an exhibition of paintings by Manish Lal Shrestha, a promising young Nepali artist, is to open in Chautara Gallery at Almere, Holland on June 16 with a festive act and participation of the mayor of the town. The gallery, which is holding its first solo exhibition featuring the Nepali artist, specializes in modern art of Nepal.

One of the stolen paintings of Shrestha

One of the stolen paintings of Shrestha (File Photo)
“All the works I have put up on the show thoroughly symbolize freedom and awareness that are needed to make life complete,” Shrestha said of his paintings.

And rightly so, the paintings that will be exhibited will show the range of the artist’s achievements to foreign art connoisseurs.

The ‘sound of wisdom’ exists silently in the form of shells, bells and emotion of freedom in the paintings and which, as the artist puts it, “were meant to energize hopeful hearts”.

But even before its scheduled opening the exhibition was marred by a burglary incident that saw six small paintings by Shrestha stolen from the gallery, making it a unique case in the history of Nepalese art. “Till yesterday only ancient Nepalese sculptures used to get stolen, but now Nepalese modern painting!”

He quoted the Dutch police as saying that chances of recovering the stolen paining were rare even as they have been putting sincere efforts to track down the burglars.

According to Shrestha, on the night of May 16, burglars barged into the gallery building from the roof and by deactivating the gallery alarm system, made away with six small paintings by him under the cover of darkness.

Although the burglary, in which the one painting he cherished most was also stolen, has greatly saddened him he is still hopeful that the exhibition would be received well.

“There are still enough paintings that would exhibit what I am trying to say through my art,” the artist said.