India, June 19 -- New Delhi

It was January 8, 1934, and Mahatma Gandhi had granted young Hungarian artist Elizabeth Brunner exactly 15 minutes. Brunner, undeterred by the Mahatma's scepticism about portrait painting, began sketching his downward gaze-capturing not just his weathered features but what she saw as his inner spirit.

That brief encounter, which Gandhi would later sign and treasure, now anchors an ambitious cultural preservation effort. India and Hungary are jointly seeking UNESCO's prestigious Memory of the World status for Brunner's remarkable collection of over 2,000 portraits documenting India's independence era, officials at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts announced.

The bid runs parallel to a separate jo...