Main Bhi Hussain

Dinesh Vazirani of Saffronart pulled a Husain out of his 2010 Winter Auction. “It was easy to spot because the rendering was not at all like Husain’s,” says Vazirani.

At a press conference in London,a day after Husain’s death,Lakshmi Mittal,an ardent collector,told the media that there are over 24,000 artworks of Husain in the market. In many ways,the onus falls on the buyer to differentiate the real from the fake. “One way is to buy from auctions. The papers tracing the provenance of the work are in place and in case of a problem,one can return it to the auction house,” says Roobina Karode,chief curator for the Kiran Nadar Art Museum (KNMA) in Delhi. She recalls attending a party in Delhi where the entire house was filled with fake artworks professed to be by Husain,Manjit Bawa and Jogen Chowdhury.

Ashish Anand,one of Husain’s biggest collectors,has his checklist too. “Husain signed in English,Devanagari and Bengali. This corresponds with certain periods of the artist’s oeuvre,” says Anand,pointing out that the early 1940s and 1950s correspond with work signed in Devanagari. There was a short phase when Husain signed in Bengali,and the English signatures belong to the latter half of his career — the 1980s,90s and the 2000s. “These have to be matched with strokes,colours and themes that were the artist’s preoccupations at the time,” adds Anand.

A long-term solution though,many feel,needs government intervention. “The government should create a special body to register fakes. There should be an authentication agency,comprising gallerists,curators and art experts,” says Arun Vadehra,director of Vadehra Art Gallery,who has encountered several fakes of veteran artists,including Husain and SH Raza. “We could not do anything,because there are no rules in place,” he rues. Ashok Vajpeyi,chairman of Lalit Kala Akademi,recommends the creation of a National Register to document the work of artists,which would be accessible to people. “I had made a proposal in 2009,but the project did not move beyond ideation. Ideally,there should be a separate statutory body to handle such a register,” says Vajpeyi.

Approaching experts is an option. “In Husain’s case the family should take initiative to ensure that his fakes do not increase,” says Renu Modi of Gallery Espace,adding that artists in India should document their work and have estates,like in the West.

Till then,collectors have to follow the paper trail. “It’s similar to buying property,where one wants to know who all have been the previous owners,” says Vadehra.

With inputs from Vandana Kalra