Inhabitants of a picturesque French village overlooking the Mediterranean are bitterly divided over how to respond to a bequest from one of India’s most famous living artists. Syed Haider Raza, 85, who has lived in France since 1949, has offered to leave his personal collection of paintings to the municipality of Gorbio, a medieval village near the Italian border which he has made his adopted home.

“It is a gift in order to thank the people of Gorbio for all the happiness they have given me,” Raza told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper on Sunday.

However, the offer has been blocked because members of the village council object to the conditions which the artist has attached. Before agreeing to the legacy, Raza is insisting that his works be put on display for four months every summer in the tower of Gorbio’s castle — and this for the next half century. “But who’s to say that in 50 years the people of Gorbio won’t be utterly tired of his paintings?” said village councillor Michel Fevrier.

Born in Madhya Pradesh in 1922, Raza was a founder member of the Mumbai-based Progressive Arts Group before leaving to study at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Originally focusing on expressionist landscapes of the French countryside, his style shifted over the years and he now paints colourful abstracts in oil and acrylic, often inspired by Indian mysticism.

Last year a 1972 painting “Forest of meditation” sold at Sotheby’s for $1.47 million.