Gaurav Bhatia named Managing Director of Sotheby's India

Integrated marketing and communications expert Gaurav Bhatia was today named as Managing Director of Sotheby's India.
Sotheby's said the appointment consolidates the auction house's presence in India, demonstrates the company's commitment to providing a greater level of service to its Indian clients and to further develop its calendar of events and activities in the country.
Bhatia will be based at Sotheby's Mumbai and will work with the company's international team of experts to serve the growing number of new as well as existing collectors in India.
He was most recently at the helm of marketing for Moet Hennessy India, part of the world's leading marketing conglomerate LVMH. He has 17 years of integrated marketing and communications experience and has worked in the US and India.

"Sotheby's has been active in India for almost three decades working with the leading collectors in the country and staging regular events in New Delhi and Mumbai, and we are thrilled that Gaurav has joined us at this exciting stage in our expansion here," says Edward Gibbs, Sotheby's Chairman for India.
"The art scene in India has never been more vibrant and at Sotheby's we are engaging with more people in India than ever before, particularly through our expanded calendar of events, ranging from exhibitions, talks and educational programme.

"Gaurav brings a wealth of experience - not to mention flair and enthusiasm - to the role of Managing Director of Sotheby's India, wonderfully complementing our existing international team of art experts," he says.

Bhatia says he is looking forward to working with the international team to further develop the scope and scale of Sotheby's business both inside and outside of India.
Following Sotheby's office opening at The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai in September 2015, the company has increased the scale and scope of its activities in the country.
In recent years, collectors and buyers based in India have become increasingly active in Sotheby's international auctions across a broad spectrum of collecting categories - from Contemporary and Impressionist Art to Jewellery and Old Masters, as well as Indian and South Asian art.

Bhatia will commence his role at Sotheby's on October 13 as the pre-sale exhibition for the forthcoming auction of Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art opens in London, prior to the sale itself on October 18.
Highlights from the auction were recently exhibited in Mumbai at The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, along with exhibition tours and talks and a two-day educational programme run by Sotheby's Institute on both international and Indian art.
The forthcoming sale includes a truly impressive range of paintings and sculpture by Modern masters, from storied collections with impressive provenances. Leading the sale is a luminescent and meditative Vasudeo S Gaitonde painting from 1973, which displays the artist's distinctive horizontal graduating bands of colour.

This auction will be followed on October 19 by the sale of the exceptional Khosrovani-Diba Collection, a prestigious collection assembled over four decades with an eye for quality, rarity and historical importance which comprises predominantly Indian miniatures by Mughal masters as well as fine paintings and works of art of the Rajasthani, Pahari and Company Schools.