Two of the fakes that were exhibited at the Government College of Art & Craft

A public interest litigation (PIL) demanding a “thorough inquiry” into the “exhibition of fake paintings” of Rabindranath Tagore at the Government College of Art & Craft between February 27 and March 8 was affirmed before Calcutta High Court on Tuesday.

The writ petition, to be filed by sculptor Tapas Sarkar on Wednesday, with the Union of India as the respondent, prayed before the court for an inquiry to “identify and punish the persons responsible for the exhibition” to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore.

Sarkar, a former student of the institution, submitted that a probe by “the appropriate agency/authority is required to be made in order to find out the persons who dared to act with impunity in exhibiting fake paintings of Rabindranath with the ulterior motive to legitimise the same”.

The PIL comes a week after the Metro expose — Fakes in the time of Tagore frenzy: finger of fraud at art college show — and submits that the state government has failed in its duty to investigate the allegations.

That is an understatement, given how Sudarshan Ray Chaudhuri, the minister of higher education, told Metro on Monday that he had “not heard anything” about the Tagore fakes being flaunted at the Government College of Art & Craft, which falls under his department.

“I will look into the matter on Tuesday,” the minister had added.

Tuesday, the last day of the “Show of Rabindranath Tagore’s paintings”, witnessed a demonstration by around 50 members of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress.

They held a sit-in in front of the Government College of Art & Craft to protest the exhibition of “fake” Tagore paintings, from 1.45pm.

Among their demands was the arrest of college principal Dipali Bhattacharya along with three other college faculty members. Officers of New Market police station intervened to remove the demonstrators close to 3.15pm.

That was around the time when Sarkar’s PIL was being affirmed — a process confirming that the contents of a petition are true — before Calcutta High Court.

It stated that “the sole motive behind holding the exhibition has been getting the fakes legitimised as authentic originals by the sanction of the august institutions like Government Art College, University of Calcutta and Indian Museum so that the said paintings can be sold later at astronomical prices”.

The Government College of Art & Craft was founded in 1854 and its Tagore Show was inaugurated by Governor M.K. Narayanan on February 27.

The petitioner pointed out that over the last one week, reports in the media have elaborated on how fakes are made, and artist Ganesh Haloi and experts like R. Siva Kumar, professor, Kala Bhavan, Visva-Bharati, and Sushobhan Adhikary, curator, Kala Bhavan Museum at Visva-Bharati, have expressed their opinion on these works.

Sarkar added that the paintings of Tagore have been declared “national art treasures” under the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972. “... it is the lure of big money that motivated the criminal nexus involved to get the fakes legitimised as genuine works.... it is necessary to confiscate the fakes and make a thorough inquiry into the whole sordid project to identify the persons concerned in the nexus, who have caused irreparable damage to the reputations of the esteemed institutions and above all have tried to diminish the intrinsic value of the works of Rabindranath Tagore.”

Sarkar further stated that the authorities concerned had taken no action whatsoever against the exhibition. Hence, it was his prayer that the court immediately intervene in the matter so that those responsible for the fraud are punished.

Tapas Sarkar is being represented by advocate Debamitra Bharadwaj. The case is scheduled to come up for hearing before a division bench.