Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Indian art world has once again been taken by storm with a case of fakes. Artist S H Raza confirmed that all the works shown at the Dhoomimal Art Gallery opening on Saturday night in the Capital, are fake except three or four.
The 86-year-old Paris based artist S H Raza is in the Capital for his annual visit to India. But never had he thought that he would be faced with a rude shock from the Dhoomimal Art Gallery which is the oldest and one of the most respected galleries in the country.
"Apart from three or four which are mine, the entire of 25-30 are imitations, copies of what I could have made," said Raza.
The entire show at Dhoomimal which opened on Saturday night has been pulled down now. It was an exhibition which was meant to show early works of Raza from the 1930s and 40s period.
However, the works shown were a mix of landscapes, portraits and abstracts that Raza never did in his six decade long career. The gallery says that these works were sourced from Raza's nephew in Bhopal.
"Having acquired these works, they didn't apply their minds that this cannot possibly be Raza, its such a modclay," said Chairman, Lalit Kala Akademi, Ashok Vajpeyi.
"This isn't a show with just one or two fakes, but the entire show of fakes," said artist Manish Pushkale.
Senior artists like Raza whose works fetch an auction price of about Rs 3 crore are always the expected victims of the fake art market.
His next step is to file a case against Dhoomimal but this case will go down in the history of Indian art.
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