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Journalism of Courage
The Master is dead,but the controversies surrounding his art clearly arent. Now,a website has claimed that a work of MF Husain,sold at Rs 1.45 crore at Art Bulls debut auction on November 5,is a fake. The owner of the auction house,Siddhartha Tagore,has refuted this. I have an authentication certificate from Shamshad,Husains son,and also showed the work to K Bikram Singh,who has written his biography. I will send a legal notice to the website (www.unboxedwriters.com),and the writer, says Tagore. Shamshad admitted as much to The Indian Express,Yes,I have seen the work and it is an original.
The untitled acrylic on canvas features Husains famous galloping horses. The work,which was estimated between Rs 1.25 crore and Rs 1.40 crore,was purchased by the auctioneer from a Mumbai-based collector. I think he bought the work directly from Husain. We have sold it to a Delhi-based collector, says Tagore.
Unboxedwriters had uploaded the report on November 15. Apart from alleging that the Husain was a fake,it stated that industry watchers are appalled that several of the works,including those of Masters like Abanindranath Tagore,Sailoz Mookherjea,
Manjit Bawa and younger names like Chandra Bhattacharjee have been reported to be fakes as well.
Tagore denies all allegations. We have checked the provenance of each work. One of Chandra Bhattacharjees works that had come to us was a fake and we withdrew it from the auction. In fact,we have destroyed the canvas. There was some doubt about a Manjit Bawa work,so we held that back too,this despite the fact that both Manjits brother and Ina Puri,who has documented Manjits works,had said that the signature behind the canvas was his, says Tagore.
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