A group of miscreants entered the venue of the ongoing Jaipur Art Summit today, vandalised the paintings and beat up one of the painters.

They also took away one of the paintings displayed at the high-profile art fair.

The painting titled ?nubhav, was made by London-based painter Radha Binod Sharma. According to Shailendra Bhatt, Founder Director of the Summit, the painter also got injured in the scuffle.

It looks like the miscreants took away the painting to protest against the display of a semi-nude painting at the summit.

The culprits have been identified. A police investigation is on.

WHAT IS LAL SHAKTI

The miscreants are said to be activists of Lal Shakti, a fringe group which claims that 90 per cent of its members are women. They reached Ravindra Manch, where the 4th edition of the high-profile art fair is being held, and had a tiff with the artists.

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"We wanted artists to remove the controversial paintings from there, but they refused to do so. We for some time had a heated argument with the artists present there for depicting women in an indecent way and finally we deposited the paintings at the nearby Lal Kothi police station," said Hemlata Sharma of Lal Shakti.

"It is an attack on freedom of expression. How can anyone become a judge and give orders. You should have knowledge about art before you decide what is right or wrong", Shailendra Bhatt said.

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ACT HAS MALIGNED IMAGE OF SUMMIT

The event's organisers strongly condemned such acts of vandalism on the creative freedom of the artists. "It really is an attack on freedom of expression. The artists from 25 countries who are participating at the Summit were dismayed by today's incident. What impression will foreign artists attending the summit take back from here", Bhatt said.

Bhatt added, "We went to the police station and got the painting back. Since the painting has now been put back where it originally was, the artists are now relieved."

Jaipur Art Summit is being held from December 7-11 and around 500 artists from 25 countries are participating in the summit.

The summit had yesterday kicked up a row by displaying a partly-nude painting. In its previous editions, the summit has triggered similar controversies when Ganesha was painted inside a toilet seat and the sculpture of a cow was shown hanging mid-air with the help of a balloon resulting in detention of 2 artists by the police. The artists were later let off and officials responsible for the detention removed.

(WITH INPUTS FROM IANS)