It took the Royal Netherlands Embassy's head of cultural affairs Robert Aarsse to point this out to the State government. The permission to take up a restoration project came a fortnight ago.

The paintings by the Dutch masters -- including Dirk Stoop, Adriaen Hannema, Jan Lambrechts and Peter Paul Rubens -- are just some of the 235 paintings which were acquired by Sayajirao II during his sojourns abroad. Each of them is reportedly worth more than Rs 1 crore today, despite the cracks and bulges apparent even to the naked eye.

Officials say an expert in restoring paintings would be visiting the museum in November to study the works and the extent of damage before initiating steps to restore them.

``This is one of the gestures the Netherlands government is taking to commemorate 400 years of Indo-Dutch ties, which will be up in2002'', says Gauri Wagenaar, State representative of the Netherlands Business Office. ``(Gujarat comes into the picture because) Vadodara has one of the largest collections of paintings, while Ahmedabad, Bharuch and Surat have many Dutch tombs.''

The painting restoration exercise is not going to cost the State government a paisa. The museum authorities and the Department of Cultural Affairs, New Delhi, are well aware of the state of the paintings in question. Sources say a 1991 survey indicated there were at least 45 paintings -- including several by the Dutch artists -- in urgent need of restoration.

However, State museums department director A N Khatri and Baroda Museum curator Satish Sadasivan admit only to ``minor damages'' to the Dutch paintings.