The Supreme Court has refused to quash an FIR lodged against Bowrings Fine Art, an international auction house, for allegedly trying to ship out antiques from India.
An FIR was lodged by the CBI on January 29, 2004, after a complaint from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
From Telegraphindia.com:
Bowrings Fine Art Auctioneers Pvt Ltd had auctioned several paintings on November 20, 2002. Two of them, Reconciled by Federico Andreotti and The Kill by George D. Rowlandson, were bought by M/s Tony Haynes of England.
The two paintings were about to be exported when customs authorities detained them on the suspicion that they were antiques. The ASI examined the paintings on January 1, 2003, and ruled they were antiques. The paintings were then seized.
The ASI complained to the CBI on January 6, 2004. The CBI found prima facie evidence of an offence under the antiquities act, and lodged cases for criminal conspiracy and export of “antiquities or art treasures”.
Section 3 of the antiquities act makes it illegal for anyone other than the central government or a designated authority to export an “antiquity or art treasure”.
The offence is punishable with a jail term between six months and three years as well as a fine.
The CBI completed its investigation and filed a chargesheet against the auction house and two foreign nationals on August 24, 2004. Bowrings moved Delhi High Court challenging the ASI report and sought a direction to customs not to confiscate the paintings.
Any work of art over 100 years old is an antique under India’s Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972.
Posted in 
Tags: 
RSS Feed