The most important gallery for the works of the Bengal School is, of course, the Delhi Gallery. It has a certain number of post-cards written by Nandalal Bose and others to friends, whose source is impeccable.

It has also a number of other works, including temperas, but the buyer is advised to get them authenticated properly and get a notification of authentication from the gallery. This is necessary as the Bengal School Masters, who were not producing for today's art market, often signed their students' drawings as a mark of appreciation. These are today sold knowingly or unknowingly, as the work of these masters.

Another artist whose work is similarly necessary to authenticate is Jamini Roy. He regularly produced atelier works which he signed. This meant that a number of different hands bear his signature. But it is fairly safe to assume thatthose works that show the roundedness of French academic drawing rather than the flat geometric images of Bengal traditional painting are more likely to be the genuine work of the master. A number of galleries stock works reputed to be those of Jamini Roy, but none should be bought without a proper authentication.

The works of the more recent Bombay Group, which are largely accessible from Vadheras Art Gallery in Defence Colony and Dhoomimals, also require proper documents of authentication. In fact, M F Husain authenticates works reputed to him. And there is perhaps no better authentication than by an artist himself.

Similarly F N Souza authenticates his works, for there is evidence that a good number of the works of these two popular artists, as well as of K H Ara now in circulation may well be fakes. Works by other members of this group, like H A Gade, S Bakre, Akbar Padamsee and V S Gaitonde are less likely to be fakes as the artists are not as well-known as Souza, Ara and Husain.

Still, it wouldbe advisable to ask for some document of authentication in the case of artists of the Bombay Group as well.

Similar authentication is necessary in the case of the Delhi artist Sailoz Mookerjea as there are a number of fakes of his work in the market too. The best access to his work is the Dhoomimal Gallery, Delhi's oldest in the field of contemporary art. Similarly, another artist whose fakes have surfaced recently are those of Ganesh Pyne. This is largely because at auctions his works have been fetching astronomic prices.

Among the top group of artists, only Anjolie Ela Menon seems to have been spared this dubious honour. All works of hers that come into the market have so far been genuine.

While the seasoned collector will no doubt go for the artists named above, the more recent collector is advised to buy works of lesser known artists as they are less likely to be fakes. Also they are likely to be much cheaper. A recent visit to the Village Gallery revealed that a number of our young up-and-comingartists' early works can still be bought here at very reasonable prices.

I noticed an early work of Neeraj Bakshi, whose recent exhibition at the Art Indus was a runaway success, priced at only Rs 2,570. Similarly there was a work by a new young artist, Deepak Guddadakeri at Rs 1,725. There was an extraordinary drawing by Atul Sinha for Rs 5,350 and another by the tribal artist Jangarh Singh Shyam for Rs 2,800. Then there were graphics by Tajender Kanda, a gifted graphics artist, at Rs 4,500. All these struck me as bargains the art investor can buy without feeling doubtful. Apart from Guddadakeri, whose work is very fresh indeed to Delhi, all the other artists are established enough.

Sinha and Shyam already figure in the NGMS collection. Bakshi and Kanda are already present in the collections not only of well-known individual collectors, but also corporate houses. As such, a visit to this gallery, which stocks among others both Sunil Das and Ganesh Pyne, to scour the works of younger artists, will berewarding for the collector who wants to be sure that the works he buys are, in fact, what they are said to be. This, without a doubt, it is easier in the case of young artists, especially if the prices they command at the moment are just not profitable enough to make fakes worthwhile.