The news on television has just announced that MF Husain, our most famous artist, who has been living in exile for years, has become a citizen of the state of Qatar. The news item also mentioned that India’s loss is Qatar’s gain. To think that an artist who put Indian art on the world map, is now a citizen of another country is shocking. I wonder how many people have realised that 94-year old Husain, has now been deprived of his birthright — a chance to live with his family in the land of his birth.

From this unpalatable bit of news we now move on to something totally different. Are you aware that there are some people out there whose only business is to locate missing art treasures? These may have been lost during war, stolen or just missing for some reason. Those involved may spend 10 years ‘risking their very existence’ to locate and the follow up through various means to ensure that the missing work is returned to the rightful owner. This is naturally a high risk ventu­re, where plenty of money changes hands, international lawyers are pressed into service and deals are negotiated, which might even be construed as blackmail.

An article in a leading daily made me aware of Toussant, who has been labelled ‘Trader of the lost Art’. With associates in Amsterdam, Cologne and New Yo­rk, he spent years in research and innumerable visits to museums and archives to locate the famous Goudstikker collection of paintings. This sort of work is painstaking and calls for real tenacity, especially since galleries and museums are unlikely to ever admit that a particular work is not rightfully part of their collection — in many cases, they may not even have any idea that it belongs to someone else. This is where a bit of blackmail is useful. Once the team locates a painting, lawyers step in and negotiate deals. Needless to say, the team is suitably rewarded when the owner gets back the work of art. For artists like us this ‘cloak and dagger’ activity can sound like a movie, but this is a world that does exist beyond our shores.

Now for something far more heartwarming, having begun this column with news about one of our senior-most artists, I would like to end it by writing about a really young artist, who has taken the UK by storm. He is seven-year old Keiron Williamson, who lives in Norfolk, England. This child prodigy has been creating landscapes in water colours that have already begun selling at unbelievable prices. His second exhibition in December last year, was sold out within minutes fetching him almost £20,000.

While Keiron’s parents are being labelled as pushy for having allowed the media to interview him, I can appreciate that bringing up a child prodigy cannot be easy. The interesting thing is that painting is something that Keiron took up rather recently — after having expressed a desire to be ‘world famous’. His first choice for reaching fame appears to have been football, but he decided to learn painting from some local artists instead. From football to art — parents take notice, you may not know it but your son may also have an inclination towards art.

The writer is a painter and has won numerous advertising design awards