2016-05-12 Thu

The foundation stone or the cornerstone of the National Museum of India, New Delhi was laid by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on 12th May 1955. The first phase of the National Museum building was formally inaugurated by Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the Vice President of India, on December 18, 1960. The second phase of the building was completed in 1989.

It is one of the largest museums in India. Since its establishment in 1949, the museum has collected a lot of artefacts and presently holds approximately 2,00,000 objects of a diverse nature, both Indian and foreign, covering a time span of more than five thousand years of Indian cultural heritage.

Since 1983 it also houses the National Museum Institute of History of Arts, Conservation and Museology and now is a Deemed University since 1989 running Master’s and Doctoral level courses in History of Art, Conservation and Museology.

The Numismatic Gallery at the museum houses few of the most valuable and rare coins of India. The gallery exhibits a wide range of collection right from the Cowries shells to the plastic money and the credit cards.

On 27th July 1978, a set of four commemorative stamps were issued by the India Post featuring the pride of the Indian museums. One of these ‘Treasures of Indian Museums’ stamps depicts a gold coin of king Kanishka I of the Kushan dynasty which is one of the most valuable exhibit of the National Museum, New Delhi.