The Saffronart.com online auction is to take place between November 30 and December 2. The New York preview was slated for November 18 while the Mumbai preview is to be held on November 25. The expectations of the auctioneers are clear: there are 13 works of FN Souza up for sale, followed by 11 of […]
The Saffronart.com online auction is to take place between November 30 and December 2. The New York preview was slated for November 18 while the Mumbai preview is to be held on November 25.
The expectations of the auctioneers are clear: there are 13 works of FN Souza up for sale, followed by 11 of MF Husain, eight of SH Raza, seven of Ram Kumar, six each of Akbar Padamsee and J Swaminathan, five works of KG Subramanyan, four each of Ganesh Pyne and Jogen Choudhury and three each of NS Bendre, Krishen Khanna, Laxman Sreshta, Laksma Goud, Shibu Natesan and Surendran Nair. But I did notice there is no work of Tyeb Mehta up for sale. It is hard to get nowadays.
This time, Souza heads the list, having upstaged Husain, who, despite this, has a very respectable 11 works up for sale. This does not surprise us, as at the summer auction of Saffronart that was held between 4-6 May, while there were 10 works of Souza, eight of them sold at well over double the highest price expected for them. The works that sold for the highest amount was lot 45, entitled ?Samurai,? which sold at Rs 61,42,748 when the highest price expected for it was Rs 20,64,000. Lot 43, a Babylonian-type head sold at Rs 32,58,863 when the most expected of it was Rs 16,34,000.
Lot 44, a landscape with a church was expected to fetch Rs 8,49,250, but it actually went for Rs 22,30,402. Obviously, this run-away success of the summer show with Souza is reflected in the large number of his works up for sale.
The expectations too are higher this time. The highest prices of Souza?s works were slated at around Rs 20 lakh. This time similar works range from a high of Rs 26 lakh to over Rs 30 lakh. So, one can expect a rise in the price paid for Souza?s work by upto 10% since May this year. This, given the state of returns from other sorts of investment, is very good indeed.
From the works up for sale this time, lot 41, a landscape of Souza, an oil on Canvas of 1959, can be expected to sell at above the Rs 27 lakh expected of it. Lot 43, The ?Head of a Saint? with a drawing of the ?Death of a Pole? series behind it, should also exceed Rs 28 lakh, the highest price it is expected to reach. His ?Man with Crown? (lot 46), one of his best head series works, should also go beyond the Rs 31,50,000 expected of it at most. The same goes for a group of figures (lot 49) in green, blue and yellow, dated 1987 and also for his ?Sabbath at Emmaus? (lot 52) slated to sell at Rs 22.50 lakh. For the canny collector, we have lot 51, an old work dating back to 1948, which might just change hands at around Rs 6 lakh, though it could go for more.
The Bendre landscape (lot 1), the Gaitonde drawings (lots 33 and 34), a bright Ram Kumar landscape (lot 36), KG Subramanyan?s ?Mask, Icon, Mount, Mascot? (lot 54), and lot 57, sombre, but meaningful drawings Krishen Khanna?s ?Clarinet Player? (lot 60), Padamsee?s Gandhi and Head (lots 63 and 64), Swaminathan?s abstracts (lots 70 and 72) and Lalitha Lajmi?s ?Homage to Frida Kahlo,? Bhupen Khakhar?s Gujarat landscapes (lots 78 and 79), Ganesh Pyne?s falling bird (lot 87), Arpita Singh?s drawings (lots 91 and 92), Jogen Choudhury?s two figures (lot 96), Anjolie Ela Menon?s ?Looking out of a Window? (lot 109), Prabhakar Kolte?s abstract (lot 115), Sudhir Patwardhan?s ?Errant Son? (lot 116), Gogi Saroj Pal?s female figure (lot 117), Arpana Caur?s ?Maya?s Dream? (lot 119), Chittrovanu Majumdar?s study of a woman (lot 121), Surendran Nair?s ?Self Portrait of an Ostrich Sleeping While it?s Raining Incessantly? (lot 124), Baiju Parthan?s ?After Image? (lot 126) Neeraj Goswami?s composite group (lot 132) and Subodh Gupta?s ?One Bicycle? (lot 123), are works that should see some bidding. All in all, the auction is well-chosen and well-timed. It should give a boost to the market for our contemporary art.
Finally, I always close with a warning that bidders must be sure of the authenticity of the work they are bidding for and its provenance. The best collector is one who takes care of the details and does not get carried away by the excitement of the hunt. The investor must be cautious like the farmer rather than driven by the moment like a hunter. Bidding online makes this easier than bidding live. So I expect interesting and objectively important results from the auction. It will be worth banking on them for some time to come.