One of the best known fileteado artists is Alfredo Genovese, whose Italian great grandfather was a decorative painter of public buildings and burial vaults in Buenos Aires.
"It's agreat business model and that's the problem, " said Richard Painter, a former White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush and now a law professor at the University of Minnesota.
Artist Samir Aich said that his death "was agreat loss for the entire cultural fraternity" of India, while painter Jogen Choudhury said that he had left a huge void both at home and abroad.