India’s booming art market spurs growth of parallel counterfeit art industry
January 29th, 2011 - 9:37 pm ICT by ANINew Delhi, Jan 29(ANI): The booming art market in the country has given rise to a parallel industry of counterfeits and inspired works, causing loss of millions of dollars for the buyers.
With the advent of new art techniques, such as digital painting, artworks are more easily duplicated than before.
New Media artist Prajwal Chaudhary specializes in digital printing on objects, ranging from matchboxes to plastic bottles, but as most of his work is done on the computer, it is easily duplicated.
“I also got a problem about this kind of fake. It’s very easy, you know. You have the Internet, you can collect all images and just repeat it. One of my friends and one of my juniors did this. They copied my work,” Chaudhary said.
Chaudhary is not alone, as paintings of many well-known artists are copied for their resale value.
Sometimes even the signature and certificate of authentication are forged, and some sophisticated counterfeits sell for as good a price as the originals.
On the other hand, many artists now claim that they have learnt to live with it.
“It all depends on who is selling the product. They are making the fake things. Not the artist,” said P.R. Daroz, an artist.
Samir Mondal, another artist, said: “Even if you go back to renaissance, then also Vermeer and those kinds of historical painters were facing the same kind of thing. At that time also fake art was there.”
Many gallery owners agree that the growing fake art market is a cause of concern, and advise collectors to buy either directly from the artist or from reputed galleries.
“To art collectors, my advice is really if you are buying work from an artist, get your paperwork in place. This is something we were lax about in the past. Our market hadn’t evolved. It’s something we saw more and more around,” said Suveen Aggarwal, Director, Indigo Blue Art in Singapore.
“But now we are more diligent with the paperwork. Authenticity with the artist and gallery is something you need to double check,” he added.
With growing awareness now, buyers too have become cautious.
Many stay away from just collecting big names, as their works are most prone to copying. (ANI)
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Tags: aggarwal, art collectors, art industry, art market, art techniques, artworks, blue art, counterfeits, digital painting, digital printing, jan 29, matchboxes, media artist, new art, painters, paperwork, plastic bottles, resale value, samir mondal, well known artists