The Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata’s landmark destination and a repository of rare paintings, is under a cloud following prima facie evidence of a well-networked syndicate that seemed to have traded in fake art works.

A probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) suggests that many of the art works that adorn the walls of the Hall may be fake. And that some of the genuine works were bought at prices much above their market rates.

Under the CBI scanner is the chief executive and curator of the Victoria Memorial Hall, Professor Chittoranjan Panda whose office was raided twice in the last two weeks. The CBI has questioned him, Accounts Officer Prafulla Sarkar and several others and has intimated Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, the chairman of the Victoria Memorial Hall, and the Union Ministry of Culture.

The Memorial was built after the death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 by Lord Curzon, then the Viceroy of India. The Hall was opened in 1921 with a rare repository of painting and artifacts.

Every year, the Victoria Memorial Hall authorities upgrade its collection by adding masterpieces of great painters through yearly purchases from art dealers. There is an Art Purchase Committee (APC) to decide on this. But the CBI has found that the APC under curator Panda did not put up advertisements for purchase, a mandatory requirement. Neither did he invite any sealed quotation or tender, also a pre-requisite to such purchases.

The CBI found that purchases were made to the tune of around Rs 2 crore every year but without proper verification and authentication of the so-called masterpieces. These were bought as “originals.” To give the entire procedure a stamp of authenticity, opinion was sought from the APC to the effect that the “artifacts appear to be genuine” and “the price appears to be reasonable.”

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