Auction house Bid and Hammer has rejected reports of fake art works ever put on sale by it and made it clear that it always did due diligence before they are presented for bidding.
Referring to media reports critical of their "Significant Indian Art" auction in Delhi in June last year, Mehar Dadha, chairman and managing director of Bid and Hammer, said the auction was widely publicised and the catalogue was out months in advance.
"But none of those who claimed that some works were fake had attended the preview, inspected the provenance documents or clarified their apprehensions with B and H's experts, thus raising questions about the legitimacy about their concerns," he said.
The B and H has filed a criminal defamation case in a local court here against a Delhi-based art gallery and its promoters accusing them of carrying defamatory posts on social media ahead of the auction and got published articles intended to lowering the reputation of the auction house and to cause mis-trust among clients.
Dadha said not a single work was a fake and all the three Rabindranath Tagore works put up in the auction were original. He said no expert of standing makes an affirmative comment without physically inspecting a work and accompanying documentation.
"To date B and H has never had to withdraw a single work from their auction and vindicated by a recent landmark judgement (of the High Court-appointed arbitrator) in an art authenticity case," Dadha said.
He said as auctioneers "we don't own the works and have no personal interest in defending works if they are genuinely dubious".
