No more romancing it

Kolkata is getting ready for its first engagement with an art auction house.

Kolkata has decided to regain its position as one of the prominent hot-spots for art in India, albeit commercially this time.

In another three months, the city will be home to the first art auction house in eastern India. A brainchild of R S Agarwal of the Emami Group and Chisel Crafts, the parent company of Kolkata-based Aakriti Art Gallery, the auction house will hold its first auction this December.

There was clearly a need for such an outfit here. "West Bengal has contributed a lot to the Indian art scene, but no younger or contemporary artist from the state has had a chance to feature in an auction house, except the odd Chittrovanu Mazumdar and Jogen Chowdhury," laments Vikram Bachhawat, director, Emami Chisel Art.

Also, with Christie's and Sotheby's representations in India confined to Delhi and Mumbai, there was no one to check the art scene in Kolkata.

Bachhawat feels even Baroda has started to garner more interest among art circles, perhaps because of its proximity to Mumbai. But now with a significant number of art collectors based in Kolkata, the newly formed company will have a good chance of acquiring good art from the region.

For Agarwal, the idea was a personal passion he wanted to invest in. An art collector himself, Agarwal boasts of a sizeable collection of Ganesh Pyne, Ganesh Haloi, Shyamal Dutta Roy and the likes. But the initiative goes beyond personal interest "" the auction house makes good business sense, too.

The house will hold live floor as well as online auctions. The buyer will enjoy the benefit of 12.5 per cent waiver from value-added tax (VAT), since it has not been implemented in the state.

Also, when art investment funds coming into India consider liquidating their art after the mandatory lock-in period, the auction house hopes to be a window where they can offload their art works. With four auctions slated in a year, the company hopes to make Rs 50 crore in the first year, and Rs 200 crore by 2010.

But what about art itself? Is it really that easy to get your hand on good art that easily? While agreeing that it is a challenge, Bachhawat reveals that the Aakriti Art Gallery has a moderate-sized collection of its own.

Moreover, the selection of art is going to be almost foolproof. "Our aim is to make this a professionally managed auction house. A piece of art will get entry only if it is considered a 'must' for the auction," he says.

Committees at three levels have been formed for the purpose. The selection committee, which will be responsible for selecting art from various sources "" leading galleries, collectors and artists themselves "" will comprise of artists such as Chhatrapati Dutta and P Tulsyan.

The expert committee, which will judge the art pieces for their value, authenticity and auction viability, has art critics and art historians such as Pranab Ranjan Ray on its panel. The advisory committee will comprise old art collectors and experts such as the Bangalore-based K Kejriwal and K N Mimani, ex-chairman, Ernst & Young; this committee will look at brand-building exercises for the auction house.

Apart from that, an in-house authentication department will also verify art collections for their value and auction possibilities; living artists will be contacted to re-authenticate works, and experts will authenticate the works of artists who are dead.

The auction house will start accepting art consignments for the first auction in October. It will also feature major works by Sayed Haider Raza, Bikash Bhattacharjee, Manjit Bawa, Ganesh Pyne, Ganesh Haloi, M F Husain and so on.

The major attraction, however, will be an 8 ft x 12 ft oil on canvas by Shyamal Dutta Ray, which very few people know of. The auction house also plans to host a big sculpture auction next year.

The 14,000 sq ft area will also house two sister divisions; a publication division that will publish books, art journals and so on. An art investment division in the same premises will not only guide buyers through investments, but will also act as an art bank that will have a corpus fund for future investments on behalf of the company. There will also be a section for an art library and archives.

Designed by Mumbai-based architect Hafeez Contractor, the auction house will be furnished by Chisel Crafts (an arm of Chisel Art), which has been known for exporting furniture to Hollywood who's-who. The company also designed furniture for the Harry Potter movies. The entire initiative will cost the Emami Group Rs 30-50 crore.