Santiniketan, Oct. 23: Police today requested the Archaeological Survey of India to send its experts to ascertain whether the paintings and other works of art seized during raids over the past week have any antique value.

Visva-Bharati clerk Sumantra Pal, who also owns an art gallery, and Rohitashwa Ghosh, another gallery owner and an alleged fake art dealer, are in police custody. The art works were found in their possession without papers to authenticate their provenance.

“We want the Archaeological Survey of India to inspect the paintings and other items we have seized. We want their opinion on whether there is anything of antique value,” Birbhum superintendent of police S.S. Panda said.

Pal, a prime accused, was remanded in police custody for five days by the Bolpur additional chief judicial magistrate. The two other prime accused, Ghosh and Sukumar Das, were given jail custody till November 1.

The police stumbled on the stolen/fake paintings and artefacts when sleuths in the guise of art dealers trapped Rohitashwa in his studio-cum-gallery near Santiniketan on October 17 and seized a number of paintings — some of them flogged as those by Somnath Hore, Nandalal Bose and Satyajit Ray.

The same night, the police raided Rohitashwa’s rented flat in Calcutta and seized more paintings and art objects.

Pal, a Sangeet Bhavan clerk, was arrested the following day. The man, who earns about Rs 10,000 a month, allegedly owns three studios, including one in Mumbai, and a couple of hotels in Bolpur.

He was also questioned after Tagore’s Nobel medal and other memorabilia were stolen from the Rabindra Bhavan museum where his father was once a curator.

Altogether, 57 paintings and 20 prints, including those said to be of Tagore, Picasso and Leonardo Da Vinci, six wooden art works, a brass casket and a book with gold-lined pages were seized during the raids.

Over the past few days, the police have carried out several raids in and around the university town.

Rohitashwa had told the police that Pal had instructed him to rent the room in Calcutta.