The Authenticity of the ‘Fake’ Art Market

Neville Tuli

Neville Tuli the Founder Chairman of the “Osian’s” Group elaborates on the “The Authenticity of the ‘Fake’ Art Market”, an in depth analysis of the politics that surround auctions and claims of artworks being called ‘Fakes’ without due diligence.

Over the recent few months, the noise pertaining to ‘fakes’ in the Indian modern and contemporary fi ne arts market has increased. Which part is genuine and needful of serious remedy, and which is hype, signifying nothing, needs to be clearly separated and understood. Th is lack of clarity for the art market is very dangerous and allows abuse. It is further worsened by the lack of knowledge and credible information fl ow in the public arena; the back-stabbing, generated gossip and hidden agendas among rivals; the scale of the black economy and its related absence of genuine documentation; the emotions and egos of untrained relatives who are adopting custodial roles without grasping any of the responsibilities of that task; the limitations and bias towards controversy facing the media in reporting the subject; the inability of the arts fraternity and academia to take on the public education duty; and the relatively ineff ective legal framework which allows raw opinions to pretend to be facts, at least for a few months, without serious consequences upon those who shout lies first and loudest.

Having witnessed and faced various kinds of experiences over the past two decades (a forthcoming book will detail much more), it is best to clarify select key issues by sharing a few of these incidents. As the head of India’s fi rst arts Auction House I had/have hundreds of artworks passing our offi ces and hands daily. From day one it was clear that to help build the arts education and knowledge-base for the country, documenting and archiving everything was essential.