Antony’s wife refutes charges on artwork sale

Defence Minister A K Antony’s wife Elizabeth Antony has refuted allegations that she sold eight paintings to the cash-strapped Airport Authority of India for a mind-boggling sum of Rs280mn. She issued a clarification on the sale of her paintings after a Delhi newspaper published a report putting her in bad light and which went viral on social networking sites. The report appearing in the Mail Today on Tuesday alleged the AAI bought the paintings at an exhibition she held at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi last year. The AII too issued a statement demanding an unconditional apology from the tabloid newspaper - a joint venture between India Today group and London’s Daily Mail. “The painting exhibition in question...had a total of 24 art exhibits. The paintings were sold for a cumulative sum of Rs16 lakhs (Rs1.6mn - $28,572). The controversial painting circulated in news and social media was not sold to the AAI and was sold to a private art collector for a figure of Rs95,000,” she said. “What is being seen is a politically motivated defamation and sensationalist journalism on a very noble cause.” The AAI had bought four paintings for a total of Rs25,000. All the proceeds from the exhibition went to her Navoothan Charitable Foundation and are used entirely for cancer cause. The Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) here also received Rs250,000 from the charity. “I authorised the purchase and the AII bought the paintings in a transparent way. There’s nothing secretive about it,” said Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi, who was in charge of aviation at that time. “I have seen her painting at Trivandrum airport.” Elizabeth Antony’s Facebook page says she started her career in a nationalised bank and she retired as a senior executive while pursuing higher education and acquiring several degrees. She took her postgraduate degree in intellectual property law in 2009 and enrolled as a lawyer at the Kerala High Court in March this year hoping to serve the destitute and poor women without a fee. She decided to take up “Cancer awareness and Cancer help” as one of the causes through the Navoothan Charitable Foundation of which she is the founding president.