Logistical & Diplomatic Nightmare: Asia Society’s Postponed Pakistan Show Gets Back on Track

Sign in Asia Society's lobby heralds show postponed from March to next month.

In the history of exasperatingly difficult-to-organize exhibitions, few can top Asia Society's upcoming Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan: Art of Gandhara, now expected to open on or about Aug. 9 for a run of about three months, as its curator, Adriana Proser, told me today. The show of sculptures, architectural reliefs and works of gold and bronze from the Gandhara region of Pakistan (in present-day Peshawar) had originally been announced for last March.

"You have no idea what we have been through," Melissa Chiu, director of the Asia Society Museum, told me during our recent chat at her New York museum. "I've persisted because this is a unique opportunity for us to show the cultural heritage of Pakistan at a time when U.S.-Pakistan relations are probably at their lowest ever."

Then they got even lower. We spoke at the end of June, after the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan by U.S. troops, but before the recent announcement that the U.S. is suspending or canceling hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid to Pakistan.

"Nobody works with Pakistan," Chiu told me. "Many other museums had tried....Every week there was something---from a drone strike to the killing of Osama bin Laden. Every week there was something that would basically stall our project. And every week I had to call and ask for help. But a lot of people in Pakistan want to see the show happen."

Aside from unstable diplomatic relations, there were numerous freak disruptions:

The governor for Lahore was assassinated. Our former chairman, Richard Holbrooke [who became President Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan] died. Both were champions who had helped us with this. There was a major flood. Then, the Ministry of Culture, with which we had an agreement, was dissolved by constitutional amendment....

A member of the [Pakistani] President's office decided it [the planning of the show] should be devolved to the provinces. So I had to renegotiate agreements with the provinces. It required nearly 10 signatures, from one government department to another....I've been to Pakistan many times to try to make this happen.

We had many champions in Pakistan. If you remember, we did the Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan show [in 2009]....We've presented performing arts, singers, poets, for decades. So we already have the very close connections, and favors that we could to call in....No other museum could do this.

The majority of works will come from the National Museum, Karachi and the Central Museum, Lahore.

"People in Pakistan see its importance," Chiu said, "because it shows an unknown cultural heritage of Pakistan. When people say 'Pakistan,' they don't think of a Buddhist heritage. They don't think of a Buddhist center of learning that is all about peace. It's unique opportunity for us at Asia Society to be able to present it."

"These works," Chiu predicted, "will never leave the country again."