Indeed, it should be our effort to ensure this does not happen again, for even today our contemporary art is grossly under-priced and a whole auction nets just a little more than a good print of Picasso. The task of establishing our contemporary art globally is still an uphill one. And the desire to make a quick buck will be disastrous in this process.

It's scandalous how Indian artists and galleries submit to haggling and evengiving away works with those bought (as an unwritten agreement). This phenomenon leads to collectors dumping their work in the market with chaotic results for their price structure.

The main sufferer is serious art. For often what is dumped is decorative work and the whole auction is dominated by people looking for pleasant pictures and not works of art.

In an economy in recession, the auction houses too, play to the gallery. And only that can explain how B Prabha and Jaya Wheaton were included in this auction.

The price was paid by K K Hebbar's excellent anti-war art works -- Holocaust and War Scene, Husain's H H Maharani Booted from The Raj series, the first work ever of Neeraj Goswami to come up, as well as a beautiful Kerala landscape by Husain, all of which remained unsold.

A number of other artists sold minor works at reasonable prices while their major works remained unsold. This is the cost of the drawing-room politics of artists.

The mediocre sell, but the best have towait like Van Gogh, who never sold more than one work all his life. The good investor must, however, be careful of this. He or she cannot afford to be taken in by marketing hype, the manner of individual artists, or the heat of the moment. They will pay for it in the long run.

However, a close look at the sales shows one that the collectors come with their eyes open. A water-colour on paper by Gaganendranath Tagore of his cubistic series, in black and white, sold for nearly Rs 4.8 lakh, while one of his anti-war cartoons fetched Rs 2.2 lakh. It is evident the buyers were aware they were buying the work of the one man who can justly be called the initiator of Indian modern art.

Then Nandalal Bose, to whom goes the credit of not only integrating the folk art of the peasantry into the contemporary idiom but also linking it with the national movement, was picked out by discerning collectors at prices varying from Rs 3 to Rs 4 lakh for small works. In fact, the highest pricers per square cm were paid forthese artists, although the highest price paid was for a work by Akbar Padamsee that fetched Rs 10.4 lakh.

It is clear that the role of Bengal artists in setting out to evolve a non-colonial Indian art is what has given them their pre-eminence in the market even today. Chughatai with a more revivalist stance than either Gaganendranath or Nandalal, sold a major work at over Rs 10 lakh, but the price he commands per square cm is close to that of Jamini Roy who has never made it as high as he should because of his atelier production. Even so, both Chughtai and he rank above the highest priced living artists, Ganesh Pyne and Husain. It is evident that collectors are buying art history and not mere pictures. That is why the sales of some artists persevere and others disappear from the scene.

In the June 1995 auction of Christie's, Gaganendranath Tagore was not included but in June 1997, a small work of his sold for Rs 2.6 lakh, fetching a per square cm price of Rs 521.64. This time, despite the pound beingmore expensive in relation to the rupee, a similar work fetched a price of Rs 646.99, an increase of 24 per cent. Clearly, the recession has not hit the price of a significant work of Gaganendranath.

Similarly, a Jamini Roy like the one that sold at a price of Rs 214.66 per square cm in June 1997, sold this time at a price of Rs 472.33 per sq cm reflecting the rising prices of significant art. In the case ofliving artists and cult figures, prices vary.

There are more ups and downs of reflecting individual features. But artists like Ganesh Pyne and M F Husain are a safe enough bet along side the Bengal School "greats" who broke away from western academism and broughtthe Bengal folk idiom to the contemporary stage.

The collector must look out for those who find new paths. Recognising such art is the problem that has to be addressed. At the same time, however, one must guard against fakes, or students' works signed by the great Bengal masters in appreciation, or Jamini Roy's atelier productions beingpassed off as the real thing.

Caution pays in buying art. Caveat emptor.