Want fake art? Shell out Rs 80L

MUMBAI: The fact that many Indian artists are hot property is also borne out by the booming market in fakes. The owner of a Colaba-based art gallery was arrested on Saturday for trying to sell a fake of renowned contemporary artist Subodh Gupta���s work at a whopping Rs 80 lakh.
Shyamsunder Desai, the accused, runs Sahiil art gallery on Colaba���s 3rd Pasta Lane.Desai told the police that he used to source the paintings from New Delhi-based Raju Tiwari. While Tiwari is on the run, his local associate, Mohanlal Solanki, who is a frame-maker based in Colaba, has been arrested.
���Eighty-two paintings have been seized from Desai���s gallery. Of these, the ones found to be authentic will be returned to the artists as per the court���s order. We want to appeal to all those who have bought paintings from Sahiil gallery to come forward so that the authenticity of the paintings can be verified,������ investigating officer S D Deshmukh said. Ironically, the gallery���s website offers an authenticity guarantee to buyers.
A Patna native, Gupta lives and works in New Delhi. Working with simple symbols of village life like utensils, milk buckets, dried cowdung cakes and crude guns of the rustic mafia, Gupta���s work centres on references to the traditional and contemporary iconography in collision with the fast, and sometimes cruel process of modernisation in India.
���Anubha Dey, the director of the Bodhi Gaya gallery in New Delhi, approached us with a complaint on August 28 after she learnt that a fake of Gupta���s work was being sold in a Colaba gallery. The original is stored at the Bodhi Gaya gallery. Dey exchanged e-mails with the gallery owner (Desai) and also checked his website, where the photograph of the fake painting was put up,������ DCP Vishwas Nangre-Patil said.
Armed with a hidden camera, plainclothed cops then accompanied Dey to meet Desai. Dey struck a deal to buy the fake painting for Rs 80 lakh and paid Desai a token sum of Rs 10,000. He was caught on camera accepting the money.