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The second edition of Sotheby’s Indian art exhibition failed to attract the attention of art buyers, thanks to the ongoing economic slowdown and “overpriced” valuation sought by the sellers.
The auction, held in Mumbai on Friday, even failed to sell the highlight of the evening -- a $3 million (Rs 21.4 crore) Gaitonde painting. Besides, the total lot on sale fetched only Rs 23.8 crore, as against the expected realisation of Rs 37 crore. Of the 61 pieces of art on sale, 11 failed to find a buyer.
Ashvin Rajagopalan, director of the Piramal Foundation of Art, said art collectors were generally holding on to their cash due to the economic mood in the country which was well-known. “Inherent challenges with auctions in India are that if you are sourcing works in the market, then they have already been seen many times over by collectors, which can cause fatigue for a buyer,” he said. “The other problem is that if you don’t have a piece of art that is truly exceptional and outstanding, then it won’t get attention.”
He said recession indices typically showed that the art market only fell by 3 to 4 per cent when the stock market fell by 20 per cent. “So this is not a normal retraction in prices, which means that perhaps collector attention is shifting to other areas such as western or other areas of Indian art like architecture photography or (art) institution-building.”
The Sotheby’s auction was held a day after global ratings firm Moody’s Investors Service cut India’s calendar year 2019 gross domestic product growth forecast to 5.6 per cent from 6.2 per cent, citing a consumption slowdown.
Sandeep Goyal, former adman and art collector, said that in times of an economic slowdown, buyers became more discerning. “Also, sometimes, the reserve price of ‘average’ works is higher than what the market will accept. Such works then don’t sell,” he said.
“Just because a work is from a certain artist does not automatically ensure that it will get picked up blindly. Average works of any artist tend to get onto a slow track,” he added.
Yamini Mehta, deputy chairperson for Indian and Southeast Asian art at Sotheby’s, said just because an auction missed its estimated sales target did not mean that the overall appetite for art amongst buyers had extinguished.
In the case of V S Gaitonde painting from Friday’s “Boundless: India” auction, the valuation sought by the seller was too high, said a potential buyer. The projected reserve price for the untitled Gaitonde was perhaps too high for the present market.
A source said though the reserve price of Gaitonde painting was high, there were bidders for as high as $2 million (Rs 14 crore). That still didn't get to the expected price and the seller withdrew the piece of art. Some pieces of art did buck the trend at the auction, including Francis Newton Souza, Jehangir Sabavala, and Bhupen Khakhar.
