India, Sept. 13 -- For nearly six years, one of Delhi's most significant public artworks lay hidden from view, carefully boxed away in climate-controlled storage as if it had faded from memory. Now, at last, the monumental mural by modernist painter and Padma Vibhushan awardee MF Husain has come home again.

Painted in 1963, just a year after the original World Health Organisation (WHO) South-East Asia regional office was completed, Husain's massive mural - The History of Medicine - is no ordinary artwork. Spanning 60 feet in length and 10 feet in height, signed twice by the artist in English and Hindi, it was a bold fusion of public architecture and modern Indian art at a time when such collaborations were rare.

Its journey, however, ha...