LAHORE: A seminar, titled “Tributes/Imitations/Fakes: The Troublesome World of Authenticity” was held at Alhamra Arts Centre, The Mall. The event was held in connection with the Lahore Biennale 03 (LB03).

The panel consisted of artist and teacher Salima Hashmi, art historian Dr Samina Iqbal, archeologist and former director of State Bank of Pakistan Dr Asma Ibrahim and environmental lawyer Ahmad Rafay Alam.

The discussion drew attention to the business of art reproductions, forgeries of art and antiquities. Professor Hashmi and Dr Samina Iqbal shared their year-long research sponsored by the Art South Asia Project through their partnership with the British Council Pakistan/UK: New Perspectives Program 2022, and facilitated by Faiz Foundation, Lahore. The research was a baseline study of artwork forgery in Pakistan while the objective of this project was to highlight the problem of forgery and to generate a much-needed dialogue about such criminal practice. The researchers highlighted the methodical and systematic dissemination of ‘incorrect’ artworks in the mainstream art market, which were often accompanied either by authentication letters from the heirs of the deceased artists or frivolous provenance letters and laboratory reports verifying the originality and age of the artworks.

The researchers interviewed different sources in the art world both in Pakistan and in the UK, museums, auction houses, collectors, galleries and dealers and they discovered the volume of fakes was huge and millions of rupees were made through this fraudulent activity. It was recommended that legislation should be put in place by the government to protect the good name of old masters of Pakistani art and a suggestion was made that a centralised authority of experts be developed to evaluate and authenticate genuine art and artefacts

Dr Asma Ibrahim shared her experiences of encountering the fakes while serving at the State Bank of Pakistan Museum and stressed the need of implementing and formulating laws to curb the art forgery business. She added that there were antiquity laws that prohibited the counterfeits of original antiquities but there was a need to implement them and make amendments for stricter consequences.

Ahmad Rafay Alam discussed measures that could be taken to propose laws for both civil and criminal consequences of art forgery in Pakistan. For example, he suggested, a buyer of a forged artwork in Pakistan might seek to recover any amount paid for the forgery as compensation in damages for breach of the implied condition as to quality and fitness stipulated by Section 16 of the Sale of Goods Act, 1930.

“Thus, under the civil law, a person against whom art forgery has taken place has the remedy of damages for breach of contract to recover any monies that may have exchanged hands because of the forgery. Section 473 of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860, punishes the act of making or possessing any counterfeit seal, plate, or other instrument with intent to commit forgery or knowing such items are counterfeit with imprisonment of up to seven years as well as a fine. Importantly, Section 473 has two ingredients: making or having in one’s possession any counterfeit seal, plate or other instrument and having the intention to either commit forgery with the same or having knowledge that such seal, plate or other instrument is counterfeit. Thus, the section punishes both the maker and dealer who can be shown to know that such seal, plate or other instrument is counterfeit,” Alam said.

At the end, it was discussed that at the government and public level, art forgeries should be discouraged. The panelists emphasized having more education dissemination about artists and their artworks in the form of developing archives, forming committees and neutral foundations with experts from different fields of art.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2024