Gaitonde, Raja Ravi Varma, Akbar Padamsee high value art belonging to Nirav Modi to go under the hammer today

Modern, pre-modern and contemporary works of art from fugitive businessman Nirav Modi's collection worth over Rs 63 crore will go under the hammer here on Tuesday.

According to Arvind Vijaymohan, the CEO of Artery India, an Indian art market advisory firm, "Interestingly, the top five works are estimated at Rs 52 crore, accounting for approximately 82 per cent of the total sale's valuation. Three amongst these are by Modernists, and one each by a Pre-Modernist and Contemporary artist."

One of the three is an untitled oil on canvas by V.S. Gaitonde which is estimated at an upper range of Rs 30 crore. The abstract artist painted the medium sized work in 1973.

The second work by valuation is by Raja Ravi Varma. Executed in 1881, the oil on canvas depicts "The Maharaja of Tranvancore" and his younger brother welcoming Richard Temple-Grenville, the Third Duke of Buckingham.

The third lot by price estimate is Grey Nude, 1960, by Akbar Padamsee.

"An important observation is the fact that most of the significant works in this collection have been relatively recent acquisitions, purchased over the past decade. The top two works, by V. S. Gaitonde and Raja Ravi Varma, had collectively sold in auction for just over Rs 9 crore in 2006 and 2007 respectively. As on date, these works have been collectively estimated at Rs 48crore - clearly highlighting the rise in valuation of the most sought after Indian masters," Vijaymohan said.

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.