New Delhi, Nov 16 :    New Delhi, Nov 16:  Auction house Bowring's will shortly open a section on its website that will record lost art. Work on the plan, modelled on the Art Lost Register in London, had started before the controversy over an allegedly stolen painting of Hemen Mazumdar turning up at Bowring's first auction broke. To register a lost work of art, Bowring's would require a photograph along with the provenance - proof of ownership - and description of the work and a copy of the FIR or police diary to prove the authenticity of the charge. 'Such a service will serve to check underhand dealings in art,' says Bowring's deputy chairman Patrick Bowring. A Mazumdar painting called Memory was pulled out of the auction at the last moment after the Chowdhury family of Bhandarhati in Bengal's Hooghly district brought to Bowring's notice that it had been stolen from their ancestral home. Following that, police in Calcutta arrested a gallery owner who is alleged to have sent the painting for the auction. 'An auction is an open forum which helps to bring works into the public domain. It gives people time to scrutinise the works. The catalogues are circulated a month in advance,' Patrick Bowring added. Advance publicity about the auction led to the painting being spotted by the Chowdhury family. Bowring's also offers to clients the service of making proper inventories of art works and photographic record. The auctioneer suggests that such inventories and visual records should be kept in a location different from the collection. Referring to the stolen Mazumdar, Bowring said such instances are likely to recur now that the art market is opening up. It happens all over the world, he admits, adding: 'We check it out to the best of our ability. We hope we can contribute to bringing professionalism into the market.' Bowring's had accepted the painting in good faith and when the title dispute came up, it asked the consigner who said there were two versions of the same work, and stuck to the provenance he had supplied. 'If it had not been for the auction catalogue, the matter would not have come out in the open,' Bowring said. 'In the normal course, it could have been sold privately and gone completely out of circulation.' Bowring is happy with the results of the first auction considering there was hardly any international participation. Local buyers picked up 85 per cent of the lots sold. About 50 per cent of the works are still to be sold, and the auctioneer is not closing the auction as it continues to receive offers. In response to the enquiries it has received so far, Bowring's plans a jewellery sale in February in Delhi and another for carpets and textiles. It also plans an auction of contemporary art in Mumbai in March.