Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, Mar 04, 2006
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Mar 04, 2006 |
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Variety
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Arts & Crafts Indian art in big league Our Bureau
Mumbai , March 3 Not only has Indian contemporary art come of age, but so has the Indian art collector. For the first time ever has an Indian contemporary art piece been picked up for Rs 6.90 crore. And it was none other than Amrita Sher-Gil's `Village Scene' that fetched the whopping amount at Osian's auction in the Capital. The work had earlier fetched Rs 11 lakh at an auction conducted by Sotheby's (India) in 1992.
Several firsts
Curated by Mr Neville Tuli, `The Masterpieces & Museum Quality Series VI - Indian Contemporary Art & Books' created several first times in the Indian art market. Besides being the biggest-ever art auction in India with an average lot price of Rs 46.88 crore and a work under the hammer clocking a record sum, other artists too witnessed a surge in auction prices for their paintings. V.S. Gaitonde's abstract painting `Untitled' sold for Rs 4.88 crore, Raja Ravi Varma's 'Adaptation of the poem `Veenu nu Mrug' went for Rs 2.87 crore, while Abanindranath's `Mask Series' fetched Rs 18 lakh. In fact, it was the first time that works of artists such as Raja Ravi Varma, Amrita Sher-Gil, Rabindranath Tagore, Nicholas Roerich and Jamini Roy, all Indian National Art Treasures, went under the hammer at the same auction. Paintings by F.N. Souza, J. Swaminathan, Akbar Padamsee, Ramkumar and M.F. Husain also sold for over a crore each.
Buying power
The buying power of the Indian collector was evident as only Indians were allowed to bid for works in the National Art Treasure section. Interestingly, out of a total of 300 registered bidders only three were foreigners. Market analysts saw the high rates at the auction symptomatic of contemporary Indian art reaching a new high and if the trend continued, they felt it would pave the way for even higher bids in the forthcoming auctions in March-April 2006 being planned by Saffronart, Christie's, Sotheby's and Bonham's.
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