It is said that there are more Rabindranath paintings and sketches in Bangladesh than the poet ever created — such is the reach of the fraudsters who operate from this city and the districts. Off and on, counterfeit Tagores have been published in various magazines in an effort to validate and legitimise them. But the manner in which about 18 fake Tagores are being exhibited at the Government College of Art & Craft remains unrivalled.

But then outside Santiniketan, few exhibitions are held of the masters of the past. When the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi held its historic exhibition of Benodebehari Mukherjee the organisers took utmost care to separate wheat from chaff. When works were taken from private collections, it was not done indiscriminately. Whenever there was any problem with authenticity the work was returned.

There has always been a market for another Indian great — Amrita Sher-Gil. Vivan Sundaram, the nephew and custodian of the works of the artist, who died at the age of 28, told Metro from Delhi that he is offered “fake Sher-Gils once or twice a year”, and some paintings keep circulating. He recounts how a woman from Sotheby’s was very excited for she had discovered a Sher-Gil. They would have put it up for sale had Sundaram not prevented them.

But, as he says with regret, nobody ever tries to get to the bottom of these scams and find out who is behind it all. “Such a person should be put behind bars,” stresses Vivan Sundaram.

Vadodara-based Tagore scholar Ratan Parimoo said the price rise fuelled the demand for the poet’s work. But he had come upon M.F. Husain’s work copied 30 years ago. He related the curious case of a woman teacher from Calcutta who taught her students to copy Tagore. Parimoo would rather err on the side of caution. Only the trained eye can stop the counterfeiters.