Prices rise at hammer's fall

Gaitonde bags Rs 92 lakh, Broota Rs 27 lakh at Osian's auction

V S Gaitonde, Rameshwar Broota and F N Souza fetched the highest prices at the Osian's auction in Mumbai on Wednesday night.

While Gaitonde's 70x40 inch untitled work was snapped up for a whopping Rs 92 lakh, the highest-ever paid for a Gaitonde, Rameshwar Broota's work "Queue" sold to a private collector for Rs 27.6 lakh. F N Souza's Cityscape was snapped up for Rs 25.3 lakh.

Gaitonde's abstract work was bought by McKinsey head in the Middle East, Kito de Boer and his wife Jane, who are among the largest private collectors of works by Ganesh Pyne and Rameshwar Broota.

The previous auction high for Gaitonde's work has been at the Christie's New York auction when one of his works sold for Rs 46.6 lakh.

There had been considerable interest even before the auction in a work "" a first in India "" of a 1937 catalogue of Picasso's exhibition. Titled "The Masterpiece of Guernica", its cover was handpainted and signed by the master.

It was sold to a Mumbai-based collector for Rs 8.5 lakh.

A total of 160 works went under the hammer, of which 100 works valued at Rs 6.28 crore were sold.

While the average lot value was Rs 6.28 lakh, which is lower than Osian's last auction, Neville Tuli, Osian's founder, says the reason for this is because of the changes he has introduced in its structure this year by including more drawings and newer artists, whose works have a lower value at the auctions.

"Normally, 70 per cent of the works in any auction comprise of high-valued artists such as S H Raza, M F Husain or F N Souza. But this year, we barely had 5 per cent of their works at the auction."

With this auction, several new artists such as the late Munich-based Indian artist Piraji Sagara, Viswanath Nageshkar, Bhagwan Chavan and Akhilesh have entered the international art arena for the first time. Besides them, works of at least six new sculptors "" Sarbari Roy Chowdhury, Mahendra Pandya, K S Radhakrishnan, Raghav Kaneria, Dakshinamoorthy and Ramesh Pateria "" are being featured for the first time.

Akhilesh's abstract work, Painting IX, was sold for Rs 3.7 lakh, while Prafulla Dahanukar's work fetched Rs 2.5 lakh.

The auction was not without its share of controversy. Before the auction started, Mumbai-based Mid Day newspaper published a news raising questions on whether one of the works figuring at the auction "" Bhupen Khakhar's oil and canvas titled "Ram" "" was authentic.

It took the names of artists Atul Dodiya, Vivan Sundaram and Gulam Muhammed Shiekh as saying that the work did not match Khakhar's usual oeuvre.

None of the three artists figured at Wednesday's auction while Khakhar's "Ram" still managed to sell for Rs 4.8 lakh.

Tuli said that a lot of interest is being generated by artists such as Ambadas, Prafulla Dahanukar and Sagara. "Two years ago you could not sell an Ambadas for even Rs 1 lakh. This year there were four to five bidders for his work."

Ambadas'untitled work fetched Rs 18.4 lakh at the auction. While Sarbari Roy Chowdhury's bronze bust of Ramkinker Baij did not find a buyer, Tuli thinks his price would touch Rs 35 lakh in three years time.

Tuli also said this year's auction had a large representation of investment bankers.