Authenticity, provenance in question.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Subhash Kapoor, the disgraced New York art dealer who it was revealed sold tens of millions of dollars worth of fake Indian art to museums all over the world, is now being sued in New York’s Supreme Court by the National Gallery of Australia (NGA).
In documents filed with the court, the NGA says that its staff missed several apparently obvious clues back in 2008 that could have tipped them off about a $5 million statue they were purchasing from Kapoor. The dealer told the NGA that the statue was an authentic 900 year-old bronze of a dancing Shiva from the southern part of India, estimated to be from the 11th or 12th century Chola dynasty.
The NGA says Kapoor misrepresented not only the authenticity of the artifact, but its ownership history as well, saying he bought it from a diplomat’s wife when that was not true. Kapoor has been in jail since last year; his girlfriend, Selina Mohamed, was also indicted for her role in the fraudulent activities and Kapoor’s associate Aaron Freedman plead guilty in December to six criminal charges.
The $5 million bronze statue was part of a larger purchase order from Kapoor that also included 21 other items, the authenticities of which have now been thrown into question. Experts say the NGA is equally to blame here, for not having vetted the sales properly and for doing little to return these works to wherever they came from.
All items of antiquity that originate in India are the property of the Indian government, as per a decree that came into effect in 1972. Museums around the world should have been aware of this, and eyebrows immediately should have been raised if any such art was being sold to a museum without some kind of government backing behind it. Kapoor was not a representative of the government, had no authority to sell even a legitimate $5 million bronze statue, and the NGA should have acted then itself.
Now, it will find itself embroiled in a potentially lengthy litigation case that will drain it of even more money and cause it more public humiliation. The NGA is seeking damages of $5 million from Kapoor, plus all legal fees incurred during the trial.
Kapoor was at the head of a ring that sold several prized artifacts to museums around the world, artifacts which were later found out to have been stolen. The scam goes as far back as 1992, at which point he started fabricating entire ownership histories and certificates of authenticities for stolen works of art. Over the past two decades, it’s estimated that he sold stolen art for as much as tens of million dollars, if not more.
In addition to the work sold to the National Gallery of Australia, Kapoor is known to have sold artifacts to the University of Florida’s Harn Museum in Gainesville, Florida and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, as well as Singapore’s Asian Civilisation’s Museum and several other museums around the world.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com