| With 1,000 works on sale from now till May, it should be interesting to see how the market absorbs higher prices
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| 2005 was perhaps one of the most interesting years for the Indian art market. The year saw a remarkable jump in auction activity, not to mention the vast number of record breakers.
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| Tyeb Mehta and F N Souza became the first artists to cross the $1 million mark, and almost all the other Progressives achieved close to at least half that value in sales rooms across the globe.
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| The young artists weren’t left behind in this frenzy and the prices for Atul Dodiya, Natraj Sharma and Surenderan Nair, among others, saw a rather sharp jump. Sculpture also made its way into the sales rooms, as did photography — but with limited success.
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| With the water level of the art markets rising on a monthly basis, both local and foreign auction houses have ramped up their plans for this year and 2006 seems to be a year for breaking all records.
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| A plethora of auctions and online exhibitions will hit the market in a few weeks. The first sale will be Apparao Galleries venture into cyberspace with an online auction of 60-odd lots in early February.
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| Apparaoauction.com’s Chennai-based director, Sharan Apparao is no stranger to the art world, and has been dealing since the last two decades, bringing her shows to all the metros on a regular basis.
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| While Apparao sorts out her technology glitches, online veteran Saffronart will hold an online exhibition of paperworks around the same time, only to be followed by a full-fledged auction in early March.
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| However, this time the sale will be concentrated only on the younger artists. Its star lots include an early Atul Dodiya canvas entitled ‘Kitchen’ that is being offered by Kamala and Madipote Chowdhry, a collecting couple in USA, whose F N Souza painting achieved $1.5 million through Saffronart in December last year.
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| Osian’s will follow with a sale in March, and is rumoured to have exciting lots including an Amrita Shergill canvas. If so, this will be the third Shergill to come up for auction in
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| 15 years and could very well fetch $1 million as well. There are fewer than two dozen Shergills in private hands.
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| Last but not least, Sotheby’s and Christie’s will hold their sales in New York at the end of March and both houses are of the view that several pictures in these sales might make above $1 million.
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| With almost 150 lots a piece, the auction houses are finding an increasing number of consigners willing to part with works with attractive estimates and reserves.
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| Christie’s will hold yet another sale in Hong Kong, and also in Dubai in April and May, that will feature Indian art, followed by Saffronart’s May sale.
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| With almost 1,000 works up for sale, it will be interesting to see how the markets digest a large number of works at higher estimates. Hopefully, more works would help stabilise the sizzling art market.
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| However, the interesting thing is that pictures suddenly don’t seem so rare after all, as everything is available, including a Shergill — at a price! |
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