For a close-knit community that can go for months without action, it has been an interesting fortnight. The CBI took into custody Ravi Varmas that auction house Bowrings was to put under the hammer, an Anjolie Ela Menon Murano sculpture, priced at Rs 3.5 lakh, went missing from an exhibition and then fakes of Arpana Caur were traced to Lajpat Nagar in Delhi.

COPYRIGHT: Fakes of Caur's works have surfaced in Delhi recently

Negligence in museums, lack of incentives and conservation are issues raised by the art world before, but the immediate concern is the surge in art crimes. The Ela Menon was reported stolen only a few months after an M.F. Husain went missing in Hyderabad and the art world suspects more fakes of artists are doing the round than have come to light.

While Renu Modi, owner of Gallery Espace in Delhi predicts the problem will only escalate, promoter Sanjiv Bhargav says it is an outcome of the phenomenal growth in art. "The problem is though you now have a Tyeb Mehta and Husain selling for unheard amounts as proof of the growing value of Indian art, the dealings in art are still not organised." Curator Ina Puri says the community needs to get its act together. "One can understand Jamini Roy being innocent about these matters, but today's artists should know the price they command and be more responsible." She has insured all the works displayed at Hotel ITC Maurya in Delhi. "When Picasso is shown, the National Gallery of Modern Art puts up huge security, but who will take care of our own?" she asks. "We have to nip the problem in the bud."

Not so easy, say others. Authentication and valuation are essential to the process of insurance. Ela Menon says, "Insurance procedures are too cumbersome and material, more than artistic, value of the canvas is taken into account." Modi recalls how the National Insurance Company offered her damages of Rs 100 after having insured some sculptures with it. She agrees existing insurances are an eye-wash. "On the face of it, your work is insured. But when it comes down to it, the agency will ask: who has valued it?" Collector Nitin Bhayana laments the lack of awareness among insurance companies. "Across the world, insurance companies use art as a bait to get into the high net-worth individuals' circle," he says. "Indian companies have not wisened up even though 10 years of published data is available and valuation can be done easily." Insurers in the West such as Axa have separate wings devoted to art insurance, with restorers, valuators and authenticators.

MISSING: Ela Menon's Nativity II

Artist Manjit Bawa suggests that till insurance agencies offering valuation and authentication services come in, a committee comprising artists and galleries be formed which insurance companies can turn to for advice. The Delhi-based Gallery Owners' Association did toy with the idea of setting up a committee, but it is yet to materialise.

Bhargav likens the whole business to a chicken and egg situation. Insurance is peripheral, the crux of the problem is that "nobody is treating art as a profit-making professional activity, nor is it being encouraged by the government or corporates". Bhargav, who has been talking to some banks about financing schemes for art-an accepted practice abroad-says he has met with great resistance. The final incentive, he says, has to come from the government. "It's high time art became an organised sector. For this the dealings must be over the board and the Finance Ministry must give sops."

Says Modi: "These problems are signs of a maturing market and we must be positive and overcome these hurdles." That, at least, is a silver lining.