It was over lunch with a collector friend that I heard a tale that would prove a cautionary one for many of our gallery owners. He was visited by a leading gallery man scouting for works for a forthcoming auction. My friend offered him one of a turn of the century artist. He declined, stating that he was not sure of its authenticity. My friend told him he had bought it from him; but the gallery owner insisted he had not, till he was shown the receipt. Then he agreed it was authentic.
This shows one how unprofessional our art world is. It is the same with authentication by ??Authorities.?? We do not have people who are specialised enough in the works of particular artists to be able to authenticate them without a doubt. This lack of professionalism is there even in the global auction houses where Indian art is concerned.
I remember how the same Satish Panchal work came up twice as a Satish Gujral in auctions organised by the global auction houses. To add to this, there is the story of the Bengal School fakes sold as those of the masters themselves. This could never have happened had the global auction houses been professional about the sales they organised.
The lack of professionalism goes well beyond gallery owners. The fly-by-night dealer is a common feature in our art market. There is a gallery owner who bough a canvas that had a very plausible signature of Tyeb Mehta. A well-known restorer of Delhi authenticated the claim. So she bought the work.
Then a gallery owner who stocks the artist?s work declared it a fake and the restorer changed her tune. She tried to get back to the source of the sale, but he has gone underground. So much for the reliability of authenticators and dealers alike. The extent to which unprofessionalism goes is evident from the case of an exquisite Jamini Roy drawing I was gifted, with the arm foreshortened in a masterly manner, that is definitely drawn by the artist himself. But it has an extremely amateur signature of the artist on the right hand corner to make it more authentic. The drawing is definitely that of Jamini Roy but the signature is a fake! Obviously some dealer along the way felt that was best way to put the stamp of authenticity on the work.
None of the metropolises is clear. The actors in all the episodes related above are from all the four major metropolises Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi. Also every level of the art world is involved. There are artists, dealers, restorers, gallery owners, all of them out to make a quick buck. Is there no silver lining to look out for, then?
An objective need has arisen to make the art world more reliable. The complete lack of principle that is reflected in the Enron scam, those of the telecom industry, and even the Unit Trust of India, have severely shaken the confidence of investors in stocks and shares as it was the small investor who was hardest hit. It is the same with the falling rates of interest on savings. So art is definitely a better investment opportunity. But it must be demonstrated to be so. If this advantage is to be realised then everyone, including artists, restorers, dealers and gallery owners, must ensure higher professional standards so that art as investment develops a foolproof character.
This is already happening. I have with me a document of authentication that the Art Alive gallery in Delhi is providing with every work sold to its clients. It is equipped with a hologram that matches one on the back of the canvas, which destroys itself when removed. This is about as foolproof of method as one can have of authenticating a work. More than that, the document spells out the rules and regulations concerning how a work of art can be used. This will help to end disputes between artists and buyers that even reach the court-room. So the buyer knows all the ramifications of what he or she has bought, as well as the uses a work can be put to beyond being a mere decoration.
One hopes other galleries will follow suit. Also one hopes that artists begin to maintain a register of their works, with a small photograph to go with each entry. This will help in assessing their work properly as well as in authenticating it. Artists should never stoop to faking.
If an artist does not have the originality to make a mark, there is plenty that can be done as a good restorer. And collectors must beware of slippery dealers and the desire to make a quick buck on works of doubtful value. All these things are beginning to happen. Only we must do them consciously and quickly to preserve the value of our investment and shore up the confidence for it to be really worthwhile.