How not to fall for an art scam? The paperwork around an artwork has to be double, if not triple-checked, before a sale deed is signed. (Photo by Dalan Gan via Pexels)

In 2004, the art world was about a year away from experiencing its biggest boom in post-liberalisation India. As a result, a new-found interest was being seen in what had until then been a milieu of a lower lux, a world in which money and paintings exchanged hands gently—largely in the confines of the rarefied enclave of South Mumbai.

However, in the fevered gold rush that was beginning to simmer under the surface, a scandal did send shock waves through this hitherto sleepy world. Anjolie Ela Menon, then India’s biggest female artist, accused a Cuffe Parade-based gallery, of allegedly faking her works. The gallery, in turn, accused her of allegedly outsourcing all her works from the late ’70s onwards to her assistant, an impoverished guy called Hamid.

Given the magnitude—and madness—of this “fake art” story, it became a nation-wide sensation. It was picked up by every news channel and newspaper in the country. A year later, another scandal broke: in early 2005, top artists began accusing Neville Tuli’s auction house Osian of allegedly selling a Bhupen Khakkar “fake” at an auction.

The fake painting was here to stay.

The counterfeit has always existed in popular culture. The VHS film we saw in the 1980s and the DVD we picked up from a railway station stall, even the Murakami bestseller we buy at a traffic signal are examples of “fakes”, pirated content as they are. The only difference is the sum of money that exchanges hands when a “fake painting” is sold.

Earlier this month, Mumbai-based investment banker Puneet Bhatia told the police that a man named Rajesh Rajpal had sold him 11 paintings for Rs 17.9 crore. Rajpal had posited that two of these paintings were by Manjit Bawa and F.N. Souza, respectively. These claims, Bhatia later found out, were untrue.

How does the fake art operate?

The fake art world operates on various levels. For one, if the artist’s works have recurring motifs and ideas. Like Manjit Bawa’s works, which almost always comprise an animal over a brightly coloured background. These are relatively easier to replicate. Indeed, the latest scam to come to light – worth Rs 17.9 crore – involved a fake Manjit Bawa painting.

Similarly, an M.F. Husain has a signature style that has been in circulation for so many decades that replicating that merely takes a canvas and an out-of-work art graduate—so long as the fake art dealer and the graduate have an understanding. Depending on one’s greed, this formula can be scaled up to industrial scale.

Similarly, given the fact that some of our most renowned artists have drawn from India’s immeasurable reserves of folk art to build formidable career trajectories, the fake art market can sometimes mushroom in “zones of interest”. For example, if there is a huge demand for Jamini Roys and Jogen Chowdhurys, both hail from West Bengal, one can expect to find a fake Jamini Roy or Jogen Chaudhary dealer in Kolkata or thereabouts. Markets for abstractionists is a lot more area-agnostic. You can have a fake abstract factory for VS Gaitonde or Ram Kumar (artists whose abstract works sell for crores at auctions) anywhere.

Educating the educated

It is not as if the art world has turned a blind eye to the scourge of fake paintings. For instance, the Piramal Museum of Art admirably held an exhibition titled “Like Without Reference — the Cultures of Forgery” in 2017. Here the privately owned museums sourced real works and juxtaposed them next to a fake replica of the same work, and a walkthrough with its curators showed viewers the nuances that went into spotting an off-kilter M.F. Husain or a Raja Ravi Varma. It was also ominously revealed then that the capital of fake art in India had shifted from Kolkata to New Delhi to Mumbai!

How to protect yourself from a scam

The first and only rule of thumb—and something no art dealer, gallerist or buyer can afford to circumvent—is provenance. The paperwork around an artwork has to be double, if not triple-checked, before a sale deed is signed. And moreover, merely “certificates of authenticity” cannot be relied upon as “provenance”. A huge problem in the art world currently is the now ubiquitous “certificate of authenticity”. An artist dies, a dubious art dealer rushes to the closest relative he or she can find, and gets that relative to sign a “certificate of authenticity”. Some don’t even bother to visit a relative to make a “certificate of authenticity”; they create it themselves. I mean, why waste those PhotoShop skills?

Provenance is the only right way to go about this. Conducting an assiduous check on the paper trail of an artwork, its journey from point of origin (i.e., artist’s studio or bonafide exhibition from a reputed gallery or a real relative who is not an autograph-vendor) to end buyer is the only way to authenticate an artwork. It’s hard work. But it’s always good to keep in mind that a stint at Arthur Road Jail is even harder work.

Everyone enjoys a good thrift shop find but few are lucky enough to encounter a windfall of art and other treasures worth exponentially more than their purchase price.

Laura Young, herself the owner of a thrift store, snagged what turned out to be an ancient Roman bust at a Goodwill in Austin, Texas, for just $35. The marble bust is believed to have been created between 100 B.C.E and 100 C.E. in Italy. Before its rediscovery, it was last seen at the Pompejanum—a full-scale replica of a Pompeii villa commissioned in the 1840s by King Ludwig I of Bavaria.

The area around the Pompejanum was heavily bombed during World War II and some believe the bust could have been taken by a U.S. soldier fighting in the area.

Though technically discovered more than five years ago, the treasure was on view at the San Antonio Museum of Art while the museum worked with Young and the Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces to return the piece earlier this year. The value of the bust is not currently known.

Here, we have compiled a list of the top five thrift store flips in the art world in 2023.

ALBERTO GIACOMETTI CHANDELIER

Alberto Giacometti, Chandelier for Peter Watson. Photo courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd. 2023.

Year Made: 1947-1949

Thrifted Price: $700 (in the 1960s)

Sold Price: £2.4 million ($2.9 million)

Percentage Flip: 414,185%

In the 1960s, British painter John Craxton recognized the chandelier displayed in the window of a shop as one commissioned by his late friend Peter Watson, an art collector. Craxton held on to it for decades until his death in 2009. It was sold at Christie’s auction in London earlier this year.

QING DYNASTY JARS

An associated pair of Chinese doucai ‘lotus and chrysanthemum’ jars. Photo courtesy Roseberys.

Year Made: ca. 1735-1796

Thrifted Price: $25

Sold Price: $74,318

Percentage Flip: 297,172%

These two jars were purchased by an unnamed seller from a thrift shop before they were sold by the London auction house Roseberys earlier this year. Further details about their discovery were not immediately known, other than that the finder has pledged to donate some of the proceeds from the sale back to the thrift shop, operated by a charity. The 4.5-inch-tall vases, created using the doucai technique, are decorated with blooming red and yellow chrysanthemum heads and lotus flower tendrils. They were fired in the imperial kilns of Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province and bear the mark of the Qianlong Emperor, the fifth of the Qing dynasty, who reigned from 1735 to 1796.

PABLO PICASSO CERAMIC PLATES

A hand-painted plate from Pablo Picasso’s “Visage Noir” series of ceramics, discovered at a Salvation Army by Nancy Cavaliere. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.

Year Made: 1940s

Thrifted Price: $8 total or $1.99 for each of four plates

Sold Price: $31,000 (Calculated off the sale of three plates. The fourth, bearing Picasso’s signature, has not been sold.)

Percentage Flip: 516,566% (Calculated off the sold price for three plates at $2 per plate.)

In 2017, Nancy Cavaliere bought four ceramic dishes from a Salvation Army in New York for a collective $8. She later discovered that they were made by Pablo Picasso and revealed her findings on TikTok. The plates belonged to Picasso’s ‘Visage Noir’ series of hand-painted ceramics, produced in a pottery studio in the southern French town of Madoura in the 1940s. Cavaliere sold three of the four plates to Sotheby’s for roughly $12,000, $13,000 and $16,000. The fourth piece has Picasso’s signature signed by his hand and was stored in a safe deposit box. Cavaliere plans to sell it in 20 years and give the money to her daughter. Though the sales were reportedly made 2018, Cavaliere did not reveal them until this year – earning her a spot on the 2023 list.

NAMIKAWA YASUYUKI CLOISONNÉ VASE

A tiny vase made by samurai Namikawa Yasuyuki will be sold at auction. Photo courtesy of Canterbury Auction Galleries

Year Made: 1868-1915

Thrifted Price: £2.50 ($3.20)

Sold Price: £6,300 ($7,664)

Percentage Flip: 239,400%

A woman named Karen and her partner Ahmet (the couple has opted to remain anonymous) spotted the rare Japanese artifact while shopping in a U.K. thrift store and contacted Canterbury Auction Galleries to authenticate the work. The tiny vase was made by 19th-century cloisonné artist (and one-time samurai) Namikawa Yasuyuki. It sold for just shy of the £7,000 it was expected to fetch at auction.

Henry Scott Tuke Painting

Henry Scott Tuke. Nude Study Of A Young Man (circa 1915). Photo courtesy of Batemans Auctioneers & Valuers

Year Made: circa 1915

Thrifted Price: $0

Sold Price: £24,800 ($31,036)

Percentage Flip: Cannot be calculated

This sale is included on this list because it created a unique situation where the percentage flip cannot be calculated because its starting point was from a $0 value. Basically, the painting was dropped off to a thrift store run by the Oxfam charity by an unknown donor likely unaware of its value. The painting was brought by a volunteer at the charity shop in to Batemans Auctioneers & Valuers in the U.K., where it sold for more than $31,000 after buyers premium. The majority of the proceeds were expected to go back to the charity shop.

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