Bhubaneswar, April 30: If you want to restore a precious old painting or a document, the Odisha Art Conservation Centre of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach) can help.

Rare paintings from private collections are already being restored at the centre that runs from the State Museum building.

A 17th century Radha-Krishna painting, oil on canvas, that belongs to the 17th century and is owned by the royal family of Puri, is being treated for restoration and conservation at the centre right now.

"The painting was brought to us in a very fragile condition. Most of the canvas had worn off and the oil paint had also caught dust. So we used curative conservation," said Mallika Mitra, director of the centre. The painting, about 3.5ftX2.5ft, is a prized collection of the Puri royal family and has been with the family for more than three centuries, said an official at the conservation centre.

The centre is also restoring another painting, that of a family member of a politician from a royal family in west Odisha.

"We use minimal and reversible intervention while treating paintings. Mostly, the creases cause the canvas or in case of patta paintings, the cloth, to tear and hence get damaged. We use chemical treatment if cleaning is needed to ensure the colour remains intact. We also recreate some parts if required," said Mitra, adding that the preservation charges for a painting of the size of the Radha Krishna comes to around Rs 12,000.

"Since the centre is under a trust (Intach), we cannot charge anything beyond wages and chemicals or other materials used," she said.

Well-known writer J.P. Das, who has written books on patta painting traditions of Odisha, has also availed of the expertise of the conservation centre for restoration of old jatri patti paintings, which are rare to find today since the art form is dead.

Jatri patti were patta paintings or paintings made on cloth, mostly tusser, that depicted the Puri Jagannath temple through contemporary images. In the collection of Das, one can find the jatri patti to be a triptych or an art created in three segments. The centre of the work is the description of the complex interiors of the Jagannath temple in simple art and the two paintings on both sides are the enlarged images of two portions of the centre that depicts the idols of the deities Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra. The jatri patti paintings used to be collected like postcards by visitors, mostly pilgrims, who came to Puri in the old days.

This painting is also being restored at the centre.

"To restore a painting, it takes us at least couple of months or more depending on the size of the painting and the amount of damage. So far, we have mostly restored library or archival books and not much from private collections. However, paintings and pictures are often brought to us for restoration," said Mitra.