The ides of March

Watch (or bid at) these major auctions that are signalling a downturn in the prices of art.

Just how soft have prices for Indian art become? If forthcoming auctions in India and outside the country are any indication, this seems as good a time as any to buy up works coming your way, with almost no clarity on whether the market would fall further or not. All that can be said with some certainty is that the prices seem extremely attractive right now, despite the euphoria around the international sale of Yves Saint Laurent in Paris (conducted by Christie’s, with a stupendous value of $262 million for works that included artists Matisse, Mondrian, Duchamp) and the interest in the art, furniture and 18th and 19th century paintings of Gianni Versace’s estate (expected to fetch 550 million pounds sterling), don’t count on the hyped Indian market over-delivering on its promise.

While the reason for their value might be based on rarity and quality, it must be remembered that interest in Indian art has been recent, and so it’s been quick to shed value in the face of the meltdown. While, globally, select works have always delivered blue-chip value, such works are extremely limited, and in the Indian context have still to prove themselves.

Recent income tax dodge allegations against the two premier auction houses of the country don’t help much other, with over-invoicing to raise prices artificially, or cross-bidding — of which the industry has always whispered — being only two of the ills of which this fledgling industry has been accused. Any wonder that the Osian’s auction in New Delhi — Osian’s no longer lets the press attend its auctions —sold only a half of the works that were up for sale, and managed a value of only Rs 3.38 crore, of which the top five works commanded Rs 57 lakh (Atul Dodiya), Rs 48 lakh (Bikash Bhattacharjee), Rs 34 lakh (Meera Mukherjee), Rs 31 lakh (F N Souza) and Rs 27 lakh (V S Gaitonde).

(In fact, it is this concern that might just feature more than art aesthetics in the tour and lecture series announced by the Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon, that hopes to continue with its series of public discussions on key issues governing art practices. You can enroll for these on its site (www.deviartfoundation.org), on any of the dates announced so far: March 7 and 28, April 11 and 25, and May 2.)

The next biggie in India is the spring Saffronart online auction scheduled for March 11 (which is also Holi) and 12 with 110 lots of modern and contemporary works. Estimates are down, so a Subodh Gupta oil on canvas is being estimated at Rs 90 lakh to Rs 1.2 crore, which must make all those who own far more expensive works by the artist, jittery, to say the least. Atul Dodiya here, for a work from his Sabari series which Bodhi Art had taken on a global spin, finds himself pegged down to an estimate between Rs 24-28 lakh.

Although realistic pricing seems to be the norm, collectors should be glad to see how much works by Shibu Natesan (Rs 14-19 lakh), Rashid Rana (Rs 6-7 lakh), G R Iranna (Rs 15-18 lakh for a noteworthy work in his oeuvre, A Map for a King), Arpita Singh (Rs 33-43 lakh), Manjit Bawa (Rs 60-70 lakh, for pretty obvious reasons, but which collectors are saying is way too steep), Jagannath Panda (Rs 15-18 lakh) have been estimated (re-estimated?) at. Masters M F Husain and F N Souza (both Rs 57-72 lakh), S H Raza and Akbar Padamsee (both Rs 72-86 lakh), V S Gaitonde (Rs 38-48 lakh), Ram Kumar (Rs 55-65 lakh), K G Subramanyan (Rs 25-30 lakh), J Swaminathan (Rs 30-40 lakh) and Jitish Kallat (Rs 19-24 lakh) are showing traits of slowing down. Interestingly, the star of the show is a humungous 65.5’x341’ acrylic triptych, Nations by N S Harsha, estimated between Rs 1.2 crore and Rs 1.5 crore.

While the Saffronart sale will be closely watched, outside India two major auctions coming up in New York include that of Christie’s Asian Art (on March 12), where the Indian component includes everything from a 13th century Chola bronze (estimated value $600,000-800,000) to a work by M F Husain ($500,000-700,000).

But the more important auction will be of art from India & Southeast Asia — most of it is Indian — on March 18 in New York, conducted by Sotheby’s. Besides affordable photography (Vivek Vilasini $10,000-15,000, Karan Khanna $5,000-7,000), miniatures, picchvais, tangkhas and sculpture, there’s a fair bit of works by M F Husain (top value estimates at $100,000-150,000), Souza ($100-000-200,000), an affordable Tyeb Mehta crayon ($20,000-30,000), and the most expensive estimate for Akbar Padamsee ($200,000-300,000), or works by Bikash Bhattacharjee ($15,000-20,000), Anjolie Ela Menon ($18,000-22,000), Arpita Singh ($12,000-18,000) or T V Santhosh ($18,000-22,000).

So far the market has shown few signs of improvement, so these auctions will be keenly watched for whether they even meet their expectations, leave along exceed them. Since they are so close to each other, what they deliver could be a pointer to where art prices are headed for now. Are you bidding?