True Lies

Though underhand sales of paintings are commonplace, the number of fakes up to a startling three out of 10 can be duds is no longer shocking to the seasoned collector/ dealer. As Neville Tuli, the director of Mumbai-based auction house Osian8217;s puts it, 8216;8216;With so many dealers and buyers who have no knowledge of art, fakers have realised that between these two fools, there is lots of money to be made.8217;8217; The opportunities to sell a fake have never been more abundant. After all, the Rs 80 crore market has seen a 28 per cent jump in business over the last year, and this is just transactions by cheque, a mere 40 per cent of the pie.

The problem is so chronic that some buyers are determined to expose the murkier side of an otherwise colourful business. Mumbai gallerists Shireen Gandhy Gallery Chemould, Ritu Prakash Galleria and Harish Chagganlal Classic Source are the unhappy recipients of recent e-mails from Menon that read: 8216;8216;I am sorry to inform you, this is a fake.8217;8217;

Gandhy8217;s embarrassment and anger at receiving Menon8217;s forwarded mail last October can only be imagined. It was July 2003 when she had bought the untitled work, a female head, along with young dealer Jai Bhandarkar, whose former colleague Pranali Daundker had been approached by South Mumbai8217;s Gallery 7 to sell the work. The truth was revealed when Sushama Agarwal, the third buyer in the chain, sent the work to the artist to verify its authenticity see box.

The source for Chaganlal and Prakash8217;s fakes was also Gallery 7. Collector/dealer Prakash who bought direct from the gallery says, 8216;8216;I sent the painting of the brahmin boy to Menon and she said it was a fake. I returned it and got my money back.8217;8217;

Mother-son duo Chitra and Nicolai Sachdev, who run the gallery in convalescing owner Arun Sachdev8217;s absence, deny they participated in these transactions. 8216;8216;None of these paintings have come out from our gallery,8217;8217; says Chitra. The money all in lakhs has been returned to the respective buyers and the paintings are untraceable. Sachdev senior was unable to comment, but when he ran this seven-year-old gallery in the mid 8217;90s, he was well-respected and known to encourage young talent.

Meanwhile, Menon is contemplating legal action. 8220;I cannot talk about the issue now, but those involved will be taken to task,8221; adds the artist, who is now talking to her lawyers.

In a similar bid to track down a painting which has also done a disappearing act, figurative painter Chintan Upadhyay even boarded a flight to Kolkata this month. 8216;8216;I was very surprised when a friend told me he8217;d seen a 60-second news spot that said an artist in Kolkata was faking my recent Hybrid, Newbreed series,8217;8217; says the one-time Baroda boy, now counted among Mumbai8217;s promising young talents. The friend, Amrutraj Koban, had also heard that Upadhyay8217;s work was available at a cut-price Rs 35,000, against the regular Rs 60,000 to a lakh. 8216;8216;I decided to check it out,8217;8217; says the artist. Unfortunately, despite scouring galleries there, he was unable to dig up any evidence.

Any work selling cheaper than the established market rate should get those warning bells ringing immediately, cautions Mallika Sagar, Christie8217;s India representative. In the 8217;50s and 8217;60s when paintings by the likes of Husain and Raza sold for as little as Rs 800-900, one could be sure of getting an original. But with high stakes in dollars and pounds, 8216;8216;There are no 8216;good deals8217; to be had. The idea of making a quick buck could be an easy lure for many,8217;8217; says Sagar who stresses that buyers pick the right consultant or authenticator.

While one way to verify the works of a deceased artist is to get other artists who have studied under or worked with the 8216;master8217; to authenticate the works, we know of one apprentice people won8217;t be calling on. When the guru shishya relationship between Manjit Bawa and his apprentice Mahinder Soni soured, Bawa issued a statement that a miniature up at a Christie8217;s auction in January 2001 was a fake.

He claimed the signature was not his. The painting was withdrawn. Soni said he had assisted Bawa in all his works, and this wasn8217;t any different.

No decision came about from that controversy, but an 8216;assistant8217; often brings up interesting possibilities. While Mumbai-based figurative painter Altaf is open about having assistants fill in his drawings since his Parkinson8217;s worsened, others prefer to keep it private.

Dispelling rumours that he has an assistant to help him draft those perfect Bindus, SH Raza says, 8216;8216;I do discuss work with students and younger artists but never to the level where they assist me on the actual work.8217;8217;

Meanwhile, eager copycats love to clone a Raza whose geometrical designs look deceptively easy. 8216;8216;It pains me when I see people have such a callous approach to art. They think they can duplicate what took me years to research,8217;8217; bemoans the octogenarian.

It may look easy but Dinesh Vazirani of Saffron Art believes that the 8216;8216;nervous energy and slightly quavering lines of Raza8217;s work is not easy to capture. Besides his approach to colour is specific8212;almost to the point of being scientific. He places each in relation to the other to create a harmony that a fake manages to do but with a clumsiness that gives it away.8217;8217;

Smiles the Paris-based artist ruefully: 8216;8216;I8217;ve had so many buyers who come to authenticate works that turn out to be fake that I have lost track. But I8217;ve come up with a code now that I inscribe at the back of my works. Only my regulars know what it is.8217;8217;

When an artist is not available, Sagar also recommends getting the work verified with an appointed family member or close associate of the artist. After his run-in with the Bonhams July 2002 auction in London, where Husain declared the work up for sale a fake, the artist has gone silent when it comes to the F word. Daughter Raisa, who manages his authentication processes, just chuckles, 8216;8216;I once had a fake signed as Hussain instead of Husain.8217;8217;

FIGHT FAKES
Try this protect-your-investment guide, from auction houses Saffron Art and Christie8217;s
8226; Try this protect-your-investment guide, from
auction houses Saffron Art and Christie8217;s
8226; Want proof of provenance? Get signed photographs of the artist with the work.
8226; Look for published images from past magazines, exhibition catalogues and journals.
8226; A thin, yellowed canvas characterises works done in the 8217;60s and 8217;70s. Look behind the painting and patches of colour will show through.
8226; Look for trademarks like FN Souza8217;s confident lines, Tyeb Mehta8217;s impeccable balance or Gaitonde8217;s hidden forms.
8226; Ensure your auction house has a database that keeps track of the work and its buyers over the years.
8226; Look for old labels from various galleries in India and abroad. You can use that as a lead to check with the gallery as to whether the work had been sold through them in the past.
8226; Buy via cheque not cash8212;it provides a record if the work turns out to be a fake.