Another twist in F N Souza’s tale

Today, the rich and famous babble, “Souza is my favourite artist.” But, when the great modernist painter whose ancestral roots are in Goa died on a visit to Mumbai in 2002, his passing went virtually unacknowledged. At that time, the poet and critic, Adil Jussawalla, wrote with great ire about “the near indifference to his death, the mealy-mouthed praise.” He recalled Souza’s own angry words about his childhood survival from smallpox, “Better had I died. Would have saved me a lot of trouble. I would not have had to bear an artist’s tormented soul, create art in a country that despises her artists and is ignorant of her heritage.” Jussawalla wrote, “It’s something I read with great bitterness now.”

Souza died just before the boom in India’s art marketplace rocketed his prices to the stratosphere, soaring into multiple million dollars in some instances. But, even in those lean years, he realised he was being ripped off, and fakes were proliferating in his name. In a now famous letter dated June 20, 1997, addressed to the director of Sakshi Art Gallery in Mumbai but circulated to many others, he warned, “Many unscrupulous persons are dealing in fakes,” and after naming a few of them, said, “Mark this a breed of ‘art experts’ have come out of the woodwork! They give ‘certificates’ for a fee, stating the fakes are genuine…there are numerous fakes (of my works) in the art market, not only in India but in Europe.”

Two decades later, with the grand old man no longer vigilant on the scene, the situation is worse. Fakes signed with Souza’s name are everywhere, almost certainly outnumbering originals. The Indian art marketplace may be worth billions of dollars, but it is riddled with fraudulence, especially when it comes to the Progressives and their contemporaries: Husain, Raza, Tyeb Mehta, and the Goan duo, Souza and Gaitonde. One particularly brazen example was provided by the fugitive mega-swindler, Nirav Modi. Before sneaking out of the country a few months ago (on the verge of being accused of embezzling $1.8 billion) he posed proudly with his art collection, which was conspicuously studded with fake Souza paintings. In this instance, no doubt, it was Modi who was scammed.

So, what to make of the most recent Souza paintings being offered for sale, with a flurry of attention across the Indian media under the aegis of ‘The F N Souza International Fine Arts Foundation’? That name is attached to an unconventional website (fnsouzafoundation.org), where, amid some fine paintings along with much more dubious ones, we read, “The Souza lineage can be traced to the Portuguese royal family. Their roots are linked to Martim Affonso De Souza, the 12th governor of Goa, appointed by Dom Joao the 3rd of Portugal, to rule Goa from 1542 to 1545,” and learn that of the artist’s five children from three marriages, “Francis Newton Souza’s sole legal heir, Francis Patrick Souza, has dedicated his life to promote his father’s outstanding art”.

There used to be an earlier website for the Souza estate, run from New York and mentioning all the children. However, it seems to have disappeared. But the Mumbai Mirror, in 2016, reported this family foundation charges $6,000 to authenticate paintings, and quotes the artist’s “sole legal heir” about “few people claiming to be my father’s illegitimate children”, as well as “We have a database of all of my father’s work, as well as one that traces the family’s full ancestral links to avoid confusion”. But here’s where everything becomes murky.

In 2005, leading art dealer Ranjana Steinrucke, told a national newspaper, “Souza’s own son is known to sell fakes.” In the same story, prospective collector Nisha Jamwal said, “I contacted F N Souza when his son offered 50 odd Souzas for only Rs 20,000 each. He wrote back saying all of them were fake.”

The writer is a photographer and widely published columnist. Views expressed are personal.


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