was founded in 1984 in Gurgaon by the late Mr K.C. Aryan, a renowned modern painter, sculptor, art historian and a pioneer-collector of folk and tribal art objects; he was also its Chairman. He was the first Indian to place these priceless art objects on the world cultural map and dedicated all his life to accord them the status enjoyed by art objects created by court artists under royal patronage. His main aim was to preserve these objects for posterity since they were vanishing fast. A great visionary, he foresaw long ago the fate of these artefacts. They were doomed. He decided to rescue them from oblivion by collecting them and writing on them,23 scholarly books