Auction of Nirav Modi's art collection fetches Rs 54.84 cr

The auction of paintings from fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi's collection has raised an amount of Rs 54.84 crores. The money will be handed over to the Income-Tax department.

55 out of a total of 68 paintings in Modi's possession were sold on Tuesday.

Untitled oil on canvas by VS Gaitonde was sold for Rs 22 crore. The abstract artist painted the medium sized work in 1973.

The great Raja Ravi Verma's work executed in 1881 depicting the Maharaja of Travancore and his younger brother welcoming Richard Temple-Grenville, the third Duke of Buckingham got sold for Rs 14 crore.

Last week, a special court in Mumbai had allowed the Income Tax department to undertake the auction of the paintings and deposit the proceeds to the court till further orders.

Nirav Modi is a defaulter of Income Tax also, so the department took permission of the court for auctioning these paintings which were seized by Enforcement Directorate in PNB case investigation.

This comes a week after the fugitive diamantaire was arrested by the Scotland Yard in connection with a loan default case in India last Tuesday.

He was produced before a London court which sent him to the jail after rejecting his bail plea. He will be in the judicial custody till March 29.