| The bull run on Indian art in New York continued yesterday with VS Gaitonde joining the millionaire’s list, with an Untitled work from 1975 fetching $1.47 million at Christie’s record $15.6 million auction of modern and contemporary art.
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| Just the previous day, Sotheby’s had auctioned works valued at $13.6 million, with two artists — SH Raza and Tyeb Mehta — attracting prices well ahead of the $1 million benchmark.
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| The two back-to-back auctions saw dealers and collectors from India thronging to New York to make bids on behalf of their clients at the two events.
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| Those who were expecting the two auctions with their 316 lots to be priced “reasonably” on account of the surfeit of work being made available in such a short span of time, were reportedly surprised at the aggressiveness of the bids.
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| While the Sotheby’s auction had hinted at a plateauing (especially for unexceptional works) of prices, the baton on Thursday pointed once again to the searing cost escalations that is driving the prices of Indian artists.
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| “The mood at the Christie’s sale was opposite that of the Sotheby’s sale,” said a spokesperson for Bodhi Arts from New York. “It was very buoyant and the bidding was strong.”
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| He pointed out that the only similarity at both auctions was that “the good lots sold very well indeed”. The 168-lot Christie’s auction had a large number of works of the Progressives, and considerably fewer (as compared to Sotheby’s) dedicated to the contemporaries.
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| With few exceptions, the gavel fell far beyond the estimates, with the highest prices being commanded by FN Souza ($800,000 for an Untitled work), SH Raza ($744,000 for Tarangh), Tyeb Mehta ($632,000 for Blue Torso fetching within the estimate of $500,000-700,000), M F Husain ($576,000 for Sita Hanuman), Ram Kumar ($452,000), J Swaminathan ($284,800) and K h Ara ($240,000).
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| Among the next lot of artists, N S Bendre pulled in $108,000, Rameshwar Broota $216,000, Bhupen Khakhar $156,000, while sculptor Ravinder Reddy broke through the ceiling with $168,000 for a polyester resin fibreglass head.
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| Though it had few contemporaries, the prices there remained fairly buoyant, with international favourite Subodh Gupta spearing far ahead of his estimate prices for both his painting (sold for $84,000, almost three times over estimates) and his installation of milk cans ($144,000, some five to six times over the estimate value). |
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