On the canvas trail

Christie's Indian art sale notches a record $3.7 million

In the battle to buy contemporary Indian art, New York witnessed record sales yet again, last week. Both Christie's and Sotheby's sold nearly 95 per cent of their works at the auctions held a day apart.

On March 31, Christie's sold 99 of the 104 works, while Sotheby's April 1 auction saw 49 works sold out of a total of 54. At $3.7 million, the Indian art sold at Christie's also created a history of sorts and crossed the $3 million sales mark achieved by Saffronart's December 2004 auction.

As the international art sale season begins in earnest, auction houses are gearing up to hold Indian art shows in New York, London and Hong Kong.

While Christie's, Saffronart, Sotheby's, and even Osian's "" plan to hold at least three auctions this year, rumours say international auction house Bonham's will also hold a modern Indian art auction.

And robust demand is pushing up the prices of works of artists such as Akbar Padamsee, Jehangir Sabavala, Chittrovanu Mazumdar beyond the high price estimate bands.

While the Souzas, Husains and Tyeb Mehtas remain hot property, this time Padamsee (Mirror Image) achieved a record sale of $186,000 (including the buyer's premium of 19.2 per cent), up from the $100,000 paid for his untitled work at the Saffronart auction a month ago.

While Saffronart's March 1 auction saw a 100 per cent sale (45 works), about half of the works got sold for twice their already high estimate prices.

While the Indian art market is still small (estimates vary from Rs 270-500 crore), compared to, say, the Chinese contemporary art market that is nearly five times larger, it is reportedly growing at a healthy 30-50 per cent a year.

Arun Vadhera, Christie's India consultant, said that the auction house is expecting to sell $10 million worth of art at its three auctions this year.

"Indian art is a sunrise industry. It will touch $1 billion in the next six years," he adds. Indian art entered the international auction platform in 1995 while China made an entry in 1997.

Keeping pace with Christie's, Saffronart expects to generate sales between $7.5 million and $8 million this year, says its co-founder Minal Vazirani.

For Saffronart, the average lot price has gone up from $15,000 in December 2004 to $45,000 in March 2005. Christie's average lot price has risen from $26,000 in September 2004 to $40,000 March 2005.

Although Sotheby's star painting "" Husain's Shatranj Ke Khiladi "" fetched a whopping $144,000, it failed to break the painter's earlier record. Saffronart had sold one of his works for $176,000.

At Sotheby's, several works overshot the price estimate. These include George Keyt (Couple, $45,000), Gaitonde ($48,000), Souza (Landscape, $110,000), Satish Gujral (Inder Mohan, $48,000) and Sabavala (Missile, $27,000).

At Christie's, prices of works almost tripled for two works of Husain and Raza's Eglise.

Chittrovanu Mazumdar did well in both the Sotheby's and Christie's auctions. His work Merry Go Round estimated at $15,000 sold for $54,000 at Christie's, while his untitled work estimated at $ 8,000 at Sotheby's got sold for $30,000.

Auction houses can take some credit for the increasing art prices. Prices go up not just because of a huge demand for a work or because of its rarity and aesthetic quality "" "Works also have to be marketed well," says Saffronart's Vazirani.

Last week, Christie's had 60 bidders (including written bids, telephone bids and absentee bids), and Saffronart received 100-150 online bids for its March auction. Unlike a physical bid where a bidder gets a couple of seconds to take a decision to buy, at the online sale, one can take over two days to decide.

In the auction trade, both the buyer and seller have to pay a commission to the auction house. "Currently, there's no law governing how much an auction house can charge," says Yogesh Jain, owner of Delhi-based Rahul & Art gallery.

Auction Facts

Hammer price: The price at which the bids end at the podium

Buyer's premium: To buy at Christie's and Sotheby's, be ready to shell out 20 per cent above the hammer price. Saffronart charges 10-12 per cent.

Seller's premium: To offload works at auctions, you have to pay 15-20 per cent to the auction houses

Import duty: 15 per cent