Thursday 14 July 2016

Bid & Hammer strikes back

A resurgent Bid & Hammer emerges as the true crusader against fakes in the Indian art market. Team Viva does a review

An original M F Husain painting
from Namrata Shirodkar's collection
It has been two years since Bid & Hammer’s Significant Indian Art auction in New Delhi that created quite a stir in the art fraternity with business rivals and art critics associated with them rancorously crying out “fakes” regarding some of the paintings in the catalogue. For all their noise about starting a “regulatory body for art”, “writing to the PMO” and in case of the Husain & Raza Foundations, avariciously proclaiming themselves to be “sole authenticating bodies”, the campaign was full of rhetoric and eventually withered away as most of the trade smelled foul play and didn’t want to be part of a propaganda by a few individuals whose sales were being effected by Bid & Hammer’s steady prowess. Curiously, none of them had physically inspected the works nor seen the provenance documents, coming as they were from notable estates and collections of Udaychand Mahtab (the Maharaja of Burdwan), artist Hemendranath Mazumder, artist Nandalal Bose, sculpturist Chandan Malakar (an assistant of D P Roy Chowdhury), freedom fighter Radha Devi Goenka and former Miss India and actress Namrata Shirodkar among others.
Commenting on the resulting media  frenzy at the time, Maher Dadha, CMD of Bid & Hammer, said, “The articles were alarmingly false and evidently fabricated, written to create sensational news and scuttle the success of our auction. We stood by our research and the media at the behest of competitors should not have speculated on the unquestionable authenticity of the artworks without any verification. The real cartels and tainted individuals that pass off fakes as genuine are the ones that need to be exposed and we will leave no stone unturned in doing so for the higher interest of Indian art”. 

To prove the point, the auction house, promoted by the Dadha family with a rich business history of over 100 years, trail blazed through the auction and subsequently initiated legal action against all those suspected to have orchestrated and stoked the unfounded controversy.
Those brought in the dock so far with non-bailable arrest warrants are Dadiba Pundole of Pundoles Auction, Vikram Bacchawat of defunct auction portal Emami Chisel, art restorer Ganesh Pratap Singh, Samindranath Mazumder and famous artist Bikash Bhattacarya’s children Bivas and Balaka. Others against whom legal suits have been filed include Ashish Anand of Delhi Art Gallery, Vadehra Gallery, Husain Foundation, Raza Foundation and a few incongruous proponents of the Bengal School. Also, K S Radhakrishnan, an authority on the works of Ramkinkar Baij, has denied making observations on the catalogued watercolour as was fictitiously reported by the media. So has NGMA director Rajeev Lochan with regard to the Nandalal Bose’s painting titled Woman Sitting Under A Tree. Even artist KK Hebbar’s daughters Rekha Rao and Rajani Prasanna are wholeheartedly supporting the cause of Bid & Hammer.
Kaali Sudheer of Muse Art Gallery said, “No company would put their reputation at stake by offering fakes in an open public auction and certainly not Bid & Hammer with their background and formidable knowledge. It’s high time that these self-anointed authenticators of art realise that it is them that are being subject to a public undressing as has been demonstrated in the court proceedings”. Bid & Hammer’s landmark victory in the Ravi Varma Jatayu Vadha (Ravana carrying Sita) painting authenticity case against Kiran Nadar, wife of HCL Technologies founder Shiv Nadar, further proved that the country’s pioneer multi-category auction house has the most robust vetting and authentication process and it is the true crusader against the menace of fakes in the Indian market.
It is precisely why the cloud shrouding the authenticity of Francis Newton Souza’s iconic Mary Magdalene painting (from the November 2010 auction catalogue) also seems to have disappeared as it emerges that works combining three or even four different composite pictures were indeed a unique part of the artist’s oeuvre. An example being a work titled Birth, with a ditto theme, incidentally bought by Kiran Nadar a few months ago at a record-breaking price.
When requested to elaborate on the authentication process that is followed by the auction house, Maher Dadha said, “There are certain basic principles and procedures that need to be adhered to before determining whether a work is genuine or counterfeit. The level of the expert’s knowledge and competence and his ability to justify his opinion is important. The problem arises when two equally qualified experts have diametrically opposing views on the same subject or artist, in which case a committee approach and provenance becomes all-important.”
As the fight against fakes continues, it is business as usual at the auction house with the team working on the upcoming auction, private treaty sales and the recently launched B&H SHOP (www.bnhshop.com) — an online store for affordable art, antiques, jewellery, prints, furniture, home décor, exciting gifts and collectibles. Ankush Dadha, director of Bid & Hammer, said, “In between auctions, we are continuing to engage our patrons and catering to a new collector  base through this venture that does not involve the formalities of an auction. No bids, no registration, the works are available at a flat price and you don’t lose the advantage of buying through us”.

The stakes at Bid & Hammer’s upcoming auction are huge, having sourced rare oils by Manjit Bawa, NS Bendre, MF Husain, SH Raza, Jehangir Sabavala, Bhupen Khakhar, VS Gaitonde, GR Santosh, Amrita Shergil and also Ravi Varma from major collectors, both in India and abroad, who continue to support the auction house. Charu Sharma, board member of Bid & Hammer and one of India’s most popular auctioneers, stated, “With this lineup of artists and superlative quality of the masterpieces our next auction is undoubtedly going to be a path-breaking one.”
(Source: The Pioneer, 8th July 2016)

Friday 1 July 2016

Vikram Bachhawat, Dadiba Pundole and Samindranath Majumdar in the dock in Fake Art case

Antiquated in august light


The Monsoon Edition of the Art + Antiques Show is back at the Whitefield venue of Bid & Hammer. As soon as one enters the expansive premises, you are enamoured by the sheer number of artworks and collectibles on display.

The very English sounding theme adds to the charm and you are transported into the weekend county markets of England, where you can buy from a selection of quality period furniture, curios, lamp shades, vintage photos, lithographs and ephemera from the days of yore.


What’s more, one can also pick up artworks of contemporary Indian artists and printmakers such as SG Vasudev, Yusuf Arakkal, Jyoti Bhatt, R Raja and Vijay Bagodi among others besides admiring works of the modern Indian masters that are to be featured in the upcoming auction — these include rare oils by Manjit Bawa, MF Husain, SH Raza, Bhupen Khakhar, GR Santosh and also the Bengal School stalwarts such as Rabindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose to name a few. It is pertinent to revisit the last auction that created quite a stir and eventually proved that the country’s pioneer multi-category auctioneer has the most robust vetting and authentication process.


The moment you enter this silent yet artistic setup in Whitefield, you get a sense of royalty. Exotic lamps, antiques dating back to centuries and exquisite artworks showcase the elaborate and phenomenal collection that has been amassed over several years of mastery.


Speaking of their previous auctions and the passion to exhibit authentic art, they have a team of art scholars, backed by the Dadha family, who legally established that business rivals who hoarsely cried “fakes” about unquestionably genuine art works cannot take away the veracity through a media campaign alone.




Those brought in the dock include Dadiba Pundole, Vikram Bacchawat and Samindranath Majumdar against whom warrants have been issued. As the auctioneers pursue cases against the other perpetrators, with the aim of preventing cartels from manipulating the art market in the future, one will have to wait awhile for their next auction.


Until then, not to be weighed down by these tussles, amidst a frantic schedule of shortlisting consignments and negotiating private sales, Ankush Dadha, director of the auction house, also launched bnhshop.com, an online store for curated home decor and jewellery that will compliment the physical show at Whitefield.

Speaking about the same he said, “In between auctions, we wish to continue engaging our patrons and catering to a new collector base through these endeavours that do not involve the formalities of an auction. No bids, no registration, the works are available at a flat price and you don't lose the advantage of buying through us.”


The expansive art collectible space with a marvelous collection is sure to enthrall antiques lovers. Drop into the space to experience the aesthetics of antiques and limited edition art.


Every Weekend until July 17, at 11 Whitefield Main Road.

The writer is an art curator and art expert.

(Source: Harish Kumar Sejekan, Deccan Chronicle, 18th June 2016)