The First Lady of Russia, Lyudmila A Putina, recently opened the Nicholas Roerich: A Himalayan saga exhibition at New Dehli's National Museum, the Indian Ministry for Tourism and Culture has announced. Indian Minister for Tourism and Culture, Shri Vinod Khanna, attended the opening of the exhibition, which comprises more than 76 paintings on loan from various institutions throughout the world. According to Khanna's ministry, Russian-born Roerich had a long association with the Himalayan region, establishing the Himalayan Research Centre in the 1930s and consistently creating works of his travels through the region, mostly landscapes, until his death in 1947. A long presence in India, Roerich's works are regarded by the ministry to be national treasures, with the artist himself considered as one of India's own.