Its just a copy on flex board

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Just hours after India’s best known contemporary painter M F Husain was laid to rest in London, the art-lovers in the city were shocked to see the photograph of a Husain painting lying abandoned outside the Secretariat, in a local daily. “I had gone to the Secretariat to visit someone there and it was then I saw this painting lying abandoned among upturned furniture,” said Rajan Poduval, who had taken the photograph.Minister orders probe Outrage spread like wildfire but the State Government was quick to act.Minister for Cultural Affairs K C Joseph had even said that he would order an inquiry into the incident.The Director-General of Police asked the City Police Commissioner to sent a police party to ensure its proper custody by the appropriate authority. It was only after the painting was taken into custody by the security staff at the Secretariat that the truth surfaced - it was just a copy of the maestro’s painting printed on flex board. General Administration Department (GAD) secretary Manoj Joshi confirmed that it had been housed inside the former Electricity Minister’s office and had been taken out as the room was being cleaned and renovated for the new minister.It was Chief Secretary Dr P Prabhakaran, who had first raised the doubt of the authenticity of the painting. Original or not, Cultural Affairs Minister K C Joseph has ordered the painting to be brought to his office, the next working day on Monday.