After years of litigation, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) has sold 25 rare paintings of MF Husain in its possession, fetching around Rs 68.5 crore through e-auction.
In February, 2025 the Bombay High Court has permitted the sheriff of Mumbai, to carry out e-auction of the prized art by the maestro, which according to a Nafed official, was bought by “private individuals.” The identity of the buyers could not be immediately ascertained.
These paintings were seized by Nafed nearly two decades ago in connection with a Rs 236 crore loan dispute with Guru Swarup Srivastava of Mumbai-based Swarup Group Industries. These loans were among a host of non-performing assets of the farmer’s federation.
Nafed, in collaboration with banks, had provided loans to the Swarup Group, sans any collateral, for exporting iron ore between April and August 2004. Srivastava subsequently “purchased” the Husain paintings, but its ownership was later contested in the court by Nafed.
For many years, the agri cooperative, which had faced mounting debts because of its failed “tie-up business” with a clutch of private parties, including Swarup Group, was trying to monetise the artwork.
A Nafed official said 22 shops at a Navi Mumbai mall of Swarup industries have also been sold for a combined value of Rs 64 crore to private buyers. “While the proceeds from the sale of paintings has been received by Nafed, the amount realised from the sale of shops would be paid to a consortium of banks under a settlement agreed upon,” the official said.
In an earlier auction in January, 2023, a sprawling Lawrence Road property of the farmers federation, which specialises in oilseeds and pulses procurement on behalf of agriculture ministry, was sold by Nafed at Rs 137.75 crore, whose proceeds as per the one time settlement (OTS), were paid to Central Bank Of India.
With the sale of MF Hussain paintings and shops, Nafed has completed its obligation towards the OTS, the sources added.
On March 27, 2018, Nafed had signed the dent settlement deed with its eight lender banks for OTS of its dues at Rs 478 crore which included cash payment of Rs 220 crore and assignment of sale rights of one of its prime properties located in Delhi.
OTS was worked out with the recommendation of an inter-ministerial committee consisting of officials from the department of agriculture, finance, expenditure and Nafed.
In addition, the lenders were assigned the auction right of the property of one of the defaulters of its tie-up business conducted in the years 2003-05, according to the cooperative’s annual report for 2017-18. Nafed had incurred bad debt of around Rs 1,600 crore in its tie-up businesses during 2003-06.
The cooperative had provided financial support of Rs 3,945 crore to 62 private parties for trading in non-agri items and out of that, many turned defaulters. “Such defaults had reached a level, when Nafed had no money to pay in the years 2011-12, forcing banks to declare Nafed’s account as non-performing assets,” according to a press note by the agriculture ministry in March, 2018.
The ministry, according to the note, had stated that the farmer federation had mired itself with a number of controversial businesses conducted with private parties when the borrowings made from banks were diverted to the private associates without proper collateral/securities.
Initially, the agriculture ministry was to provide the financial assistance through the interest-free loan against Nafed’s properties, but later on, it was revised with the contribution by it through cash payment and transfer of one of its prime properties.
Nafed reported a sales turnover of Rs 26,946 crore for 2024–25, compared to Rs 26520 crore in 2023-24. The federation in last fiscal reported a record net profit of Rs 565 crore.
