The South Asian modern art market is experiencing a golden age: last year, auction sales surpassed $100 million, driven by works from masters still relatively unknown in the West, such as S.H. Raza, M.F. Husain, and Ganesh Pyne, whose pieces are now fetching seven-figure sums. For example, Pyne’s painting The Fisherman recently sold at Christie’s for $5.22 million, far exceeding its pre-sale estimate of $340,000–$476,000. However, as seen elsewhere in the world, this boom has also attracted a wave of forgeries.
According to Art News, Mumbai-based gallerist Dadiba Pundole estimates that in India’s private market, one in ten works is fake. But the problem isn’t limited to India. In Pakistan, for instance, artist and academic Salima Hashmi (based in Lahore) reports seeing 60–70 forged modern artworks offered for sale on WhatsApp each year, and that’s likely just the tip of the iceberg.
The proliferation of counterfeit works is now so widespread not only because it’s highly profitable but also because the forgeries themselves have improved. Initially, many were crude, low-cost productions made by artists hired by unscrupulous dealers. Today, some are so convincing that they can deceive even the most trained eye, especially in a market where documentation is scarce and catalogues raisonnés and archives are rare.
This surge in forgeries has already triggered a backlash, cooling market confidence. When a fake is exposed, it undermines trust among collectors. In Shanghai, two former managers of Shanghai Jiahe Auction Co. were sentenced to several years in prison for defrauding a collector who paid $247,000 for what turned out to be a recent reproduction of a Qianlong-era vase—originally worth just $37.
Art Diagnostics: The Technological Shield Against Forgeries
To protect the market and collectors from multimillion-dollar scams, stylistic analysis alone (“the expert’s eye”) is no longer enough. It has become essential to incorporate scientific diagnostic investigations from the very beginning of any transaction. These methods—reflectography, X-rays, pigment and material analysis, and dating of supports—allow for non-invasive and micro-invasive examination of an artwork’s physical composition.
Combining these technologies with archival research is the only effective way to restore global collectors’ confidence and safeguard the growing value of art—not just in South Asia. Style and documents can both be manipulated, but the material of a work never lies.
