Roerichs - How could they?

There's something like falling into a trap of cynicism. It's so easy to blame the State Government for doing nothing for the Roerich estate except appropriate whatever was going for it - because there we had it, the acheivements in the posters standing at the porche: repair of the cracked foundation, repair of the broken Mangalorean roof tiles, repair of the facade, and repair of rear balcony. I thought atleast the State's let Tataguni remain the way it was left. The Supreme Court judgment on the Karnataka government decision to acquire the Roerich Estate is still pending. But if the Government's undirected intentions are marked by anything it has to be the uninspired memorial above their graves, which is slabs of polished granite extending insensitively for some distance to join the more sensible (likely original) brick path leading into the estate. Then I did a bit of googling and this is a bit of what's to know:
-Almost the the entire series of 515 paintings on Kulu Valley are untraceable
-13 sandalwood trees are missing from the Tataguni estate
-Only 115 of the estate's original 340 silver oak trees remain
-Only about 21 pieces remain from the couple's legendary jewellery collection. 319 pieces are missing, with sources hinting at politicians, employees of the estate, 'friends', and even a few police officers playing a part. Rediff.com's M D Riti reported in October 4, 2002:
"The jewellery was the joint collection of Devika Rani, her first husband, the legendary film-maker Himanshu Rai, Svetoslav Roerich and Helena Roerich, and Devika Rani's father M N Chaudhari, who was the first surgeon-general of the Madras presidency at the start of the 20th century."

So there it is, truckloads of manipulators who would find some way to appropriate the Roerich legacy. There are suggestions that in their later years, the Roerichs were more forgetful and had begun to let go. Just the right time for wily caretakers to step in and be their memory. So what were the options left to the Roerich's if they had decided on willing their legacy neatly? Caretakers? They may have considered an agreement with the State binding them to mainting the estate as a ecological reserve, cataloged the collection of paintings and pledged them to museums of repute, even the city's CKP, which they enjoyed frequenting. I'm on the side of Russia’s South India consul-general Mikhail M. Mgeladze - "Roerich wanted this estate to be a world hub of young and seasoned painters. I hope that will happen," he said.

We can only learn.
If you have a legacy, apply yourself to seeing what you want done with it right away, before it turns into a fiasco.

WALKING IN WALKING OUT
There's something inexplicable I did feel: a presence when i entered their home. I should never have gone in because the moment past the threshold, i was mortified by a real sense of desecration. It was a thick stream of vistors making their way in a small bend into the sitting room - that gave a view of the kitchen-dining and bedroom - and out again. Why did I look into the bedroom? This, if anything, was their personal sacred space and here necks craning and eyes peering hungrily into the centre of the bed. Something was wrong letting anyone at all into Tataguni, to say nothing at all of the Government claim and control.
There was Roerich's studio in which hung 14 paintings (I counted twice), among which I could later identify:
-Lakshamma
-Lakshmi
-Mme. Devika Rani Roerich
-Roshan Vajifdar (pic. on top)
(I only have a memory for the portraits. If I go back tommorow, I have a look at them all and add to this.)

These are what I noted among his collection of books (I had to miss out on the authors and publishers in almost every case; had to strain across the restraining chains to make out what little I could; once again if I can I shall update this)
-The Races of Mankind
-Velasquez
-Russian Folk Arts and Crafts
-German Cultural History
-Art of the Autonomous republics of the Russian Federation
-The American Fruit Culturist
-Here is God (Author:Chaman Lal)
-Raphael's Prophetic Almanac
-Short Stories (Chekov)
-Foundations of Buddhism (several volumes or a hundred copies of the same)
-India Materia Medica
-United States Dispersatory
-Konstantin Stanislavsky
-The Secret Doctrine
-Education (Sri Aurobindo and the Mother)
-The Presence of Tibet (Cresset)
-Permanent Red (John Berger)
-Byzantine Art
-Paul Robeson
-Bretton's All about Everything
-War and Peace
-The Spirit of Islam
-What price Crime?
-Life of Swami Vivekananda
-The Wealth of India
-Geology of India
-Butterflies of the Indian Region
-The beautiful Indian Climbers and Shrubs
-Snakes of India
-Cactus
-Le Parler l'amdo
-Coin Collecting as a hobby
-The Science and Arts of Perfumes
-The Essential Oils
-Perfumes, Cosmetics and Soaps

Svetoslav Roerich studied architecture at Columbia University, winning the Grand Prix at the Sesqui-Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1926. Devika Rani studied music, drama, architecture and textile design and apprenticed under Elizabeth Arden.