Forgery, hoax and theft are the three main crimes that regularly appear on the art market.

Fraud tends to exist wherever it can on the art market, which seems particularly susceptible to swindling, fakes and other illegal dealings. Few and far between are the weeks when the legal system is not busy dealing with some sort of theft, con or forgery.

The most recent affair is currently happening in Florida and has been reported by The Atlantic Wire. The article reveals how an art dealer has managed to sell various anonymous paintings for millions of dollars, passing them off as works by famous artists. Fearless when it came to using big names, Matthew Taylor proposed pieces by Monet, Van Gogh, Pollock and Rothko.

Arrested this week, American authorities put an end to Taylor’s five-year scam of duping collectors who, for the time being, remain unidentified. Explaining how the case involves approximately one hundred works that are circulating on today’s market, The Atlantic Wire outlines Taylor’s technique: he would buy pieces by unknown artists with similar styles to those of highly sought–after names, then erase the original signature with the new one. Finally, to pass off the perfect fake, Taylor would attach a museum certificate to the back of the work in order to reassure potential buyers.

Forgery, hoax and theft are the three main crimes that regularly appear on the art market. With the trade principally based on a system of confidence and no official regulatory body, the battle against such infractions is incredibly difficult and complicated. When looking at Interpol’s results, they are encouraging, but far from sufficient.

Created in the mid–90s, the international database lists 37,000 objects, antiques and artworks stolen within 123 countries. The system allows public authorities to retrieve 5 – 10% of the works registered. To improve these percentages, art market professionals unanimously underline the importance behind the speed with which information is transmitted: the faster one announces a work missing, the better one’s chances of retrieval.

Given the art market’s secretive and non–transparent tendencies, the fight against fraud is extremely complicated. If the circulation of information is a key point for any victim of theft, it is just as important for potential buyers to do their homework and seek advice from reliable sources concerning the artworks that they are looking to purchase.

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists, we became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India 2008, 09 Mumbai and India Art Summit 2008 New Delhi.