Asif Kamal

Asif Kamal is an Indian businessman and philanthropist based in Dubai. He is the founder chairman of Dubai based Alturaash Art Gallery.
He has been doing several notable works in the field of Indian Art and started unique investment called ArtFund which provides loan against Indian modern and contemporary artwork with a startup investment of 500 Crore Indian Rupees
It is the only Non- Banking Financial Corporation to provide loan against Indian Art. He runs a charitable organisation called Asif Kamal Foundation to work in the field of education and healthcare, especially in the rural India.
In the media
In April 2016, he sent legal notice to Astaguru.com an online auction house in Mumbai to apologize to the public for putting up a fabricated fake art for auction, the claimed artwork was by the artist Manjit Bawa. Though no apology was forthcoming but the work was withdrawn from auction.
In December 2015, Kamal challenged the authenticity of two of the works in one of the biggest auctions of the country on 15 December, in Mumbai by the worlds renowned auction house Christie's at the Christies India Sale. These are the works of J Swaminathan and SH Raza.
Kamal believes that some of the artworks on sale are not genuine, as catalogued by Christie's.
The objectionable pieces as per the auction catalogue include Lot no (39). Artist: S H Raza born (1922) Bindu Size 155X 150 cm Medium: Acrylic on canvas Painted in 1983 and Lot no (26) Artist: Jagdish Swaminathan (1928-1994) Titled: (Bird, tree and mountain series) Medium: Oil on Canvas Size: 74.9X 89.9 cm Painted in 1988.
Both the paintings are likely to fetch a price in the order of Rs 15-20 crores.
Kamal has challenged the authenticity of the works has taken a legal recourse and sent Christie's a notice, a spokesperson for the art-house owner said, though later Christie's rubbishes the claim.
Award
Art Connoisseur of the Year by Times Now Global Leaders Award Dubai, 2019.

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