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Republic Day resembled a different holiday for the organisers of a recent book auction. Theirs was a “no reserve” sale of Independence-era nationalism titles, which meant there wasn’t a minimum price and bids started at merely Rs 1,000. This encouraged more participants to compete for items such as a 1942 copy of Jawaharlal Nehru’s autobiography Toward Freedom or a 1946 first edition of Subhas Chandra Bose’s Programme of Post-war Revolution. The team watched for hours as volleys of yellow notifications filled up their big screens. “It was like a Christmas tree lighting up,” Indrajit Chatterjee, founder of the online auctioneer Prinseps, recalls with a chuckle in his Mumbai office.
A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains, to be auctioned next week (AstaGuru)
While “Prinseps” comes from the Latin word for “the first in time or order”, the 2017-founded online auctioneer is among the youngest players to enter the space. It is part of a growing set of local auctioneers who are bullish about using technology and are selling newer, and often lower value, categories of items. This mimics more established Western rivals whose portfolios span costumes, musical instruments, and even minerals, apart from prized fine art. Indian auction houses are further compelled to look beyond the fine art masterpieces, particularly the sought-after Tyeb Mehtas and Souzas of the modern period, as their supply dries up. Such pieces were limited to begin with, and a sizeable number that have been acquired for institutional collections are unlikely to be back on the market anytime soon.
Harijan Sevak, M K Gandhi, auctioned online (Prinseps, January 2020)
“Indian art is not necessarily restricted to the modern years, from 1950 to 1980, although the market was focused on that,” says Chatterjee, who used his research of the Bengal School to put works by a lesser-known Santiniketan name, Rathindranath Tagore, on the block. A first-edition volume of Gaganendranath Tagore’s absurdist cartoons sold for a record Rs 19.8 lakh.
The gallery DAG Modern had expressed similar intentions of creating a market for forgotten artists including S G Thakur Singh and Dhanraj Bhagat by hosting the occasional auction of their art. This reflects in buyers’ behaviour too. As Arvind Vijaymohan, CEO of Artery India, observes, there has been a correction in prices of typically high-value assets, and a bent towards accessible contemporary art in the last six months. “These are signs of the ecosystem widening and conversations going beyond the same 40-50 odd artists,” he says.
A photo from William Hodges’ Select Views in India, to be auctioned next week (AstaGuru)
Where international auction heavyweight Christie’s dropped its annual India sale in 2017, rival Sotheby’s launched one in the region in 2018. The former continues to sell South Asian works elsewhere, including New York and online. Besides Prinseps, another homegrown auction house, Ashvita’s, launched in Chennai in 2018, whose portfolio ranges from fine art to comic books. Add to that the first online auctioneer Saffronart, established in 2000; the 2007-launched Bid & Hammer; AstaGuru, which began in 2008; and Pundole’s founded in 2011. As of 2019, according to London-based art analysts ArtTactic, Saffronart held 37 per cent market share for modern and contemporary South Asian art, ahead of Christie’s (25.4 per cent) and Sotheby’s (18.7 per cent). AstaGuru enjoys 18.9 per cent of the share.
Auctioned jewellery (AstaGuru, October 2019)
With the number of local auctioneers growing, so has the need to differentiate and find niches. When Minal and Dinesh Vazirani started Saffronart two decades ago, it was rare for Indians to buy anything over dialup internet, leave alone works of art. They were driven by the dot-com boom and “entrepreneurial doggedness”, the way Dinesh Vazirani puts it, but nearly shut down by 2003 as it struggled to take off. A sudden swell in interest from NRIs saved it. Since then, transacting online has become simpler and safer.
A vintage gold cardholder (Astaguru, October 2019)
While a sale of Western art in India in 2012 had proved “too early”, Saffronart bounced back selling other categories like jewellery, furniture, and folk and tribal art. It holds a jewellery conference every two years to educate buyers on what makes a piece special. In 2019, a three-row pearl necklace went for Rs 89 lakh and a Burmese ruby and diamond ring sold for Rs 51 lakh.
Dinesh Vazirani of Saffronart, an auction house that he started two decades ago
“We have 5,000 years of history to pick from. All things of beauty have value and are essentially collectible,” says Dinesh Vazirani. An upcoming sale marks another aspect of its business, partnering with the government to liquidate seized assets of defaulting businessmen. Works by M F Husain and Amrita Sher-Gil, Swiss watches and designer handbags previously owned by fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi will go under the hammer. Dinesh Vazirani eventually hopes to blur the line between auctions and gaming. A plug-and-play space is currently under construction at his Prabhadevi property in Mumbai, which will host sale previews and cultural events.
Prinseps founder Indrajit Chatterjee with a rare Ram Kumar from the modern art auction in April 2019
Towards the end of February, rival AstaGuru will auction a selection of rare books, stamps and maps. Among these is William Hodges’ Select Views in India, estimated at Rs 18 lakh, which contains 47 plates with drawings Hodges made during his travels in India (1780-1783). Siddhant Shetty, vice president-Strategy at the Mumbai-based auction house, says it is currently working with international experts to go live with a science and natural history catalogue next year. Think fossils.
“There are hidden gems spread out across the country, but it’s a challenge to identify these and assess their worth correctly,” says Shetty. “You have to reach the right audience for it.” Apart from fine art, memorabilia, watches and jewellery make for AstaGuru’s offerings.
Bid & Hammer’s next auction, slotted for March 26, is a standalone auction of photographs dating back to the 1890s and early 1900s, including works by Lala Deen Dayal and images of Queen Elizabeth’s first visit to India, and of historical sites like the Ajanta and Ellora caves. The Bengaluru and New Delhi-based auction house’s director, Ankush Dadha, says he has noticed an increase in app downloads for this. “People’s fascination with nostalgia and inquisitiveness of how their cities once looked is what is generating enquiries.”
At starting prices of Rs 2,000 for some pictures, he reckons it is a good entry point for first-time collectors. Sports memorabilia, such as a hockey stick used by Dhyan Chand or a cap worn by Yuvraj Singh during a significant match, will have a big market, predicts Dadha. “We also have a lot of people interested in bidding for wine, so we are likely to do something with fine wine in the near future if possible,” he says.
More collectors have begun to see art as a generational purchase, compared with the time before the 2008 slowdown when it was considered a short-term investment. “While the local numbers of auction buyers are increasing every year, we still have a long way to go,” observes Mallika Sagar, auctioneer and specialist at Pundole’s.
Pundole’s, which has the distinction of conducting three “white-glove” sales (in which every single lot gets bought), has sold silver, Chinese ceramics and glass among other things. It also attempted to create a market for overlooked names such as Gunwant Nagarkar and Homi Patel, “one a pre-Modernist painting Indian subjects in the European Academic Style, and the other very much a Modernist with ties to artists we know well”. Sagar says local auction houses must lead the way with pre-modern material and antiquities, as they are getting attention from Indian collectors, and typically these cannot be exported outside the country.
Smaller auction houses are betting on research and curation to make their objects seem more interesting. Prinseps spent nine months tracking a Japanese signature in a Jamini Roy and discovered it consisted of made-up characters inspired by Van Gogh’s Japanese phase. Fledgling auction house Ashvita’s is doing region-specific buyers with a past sale of Madras collectibles and another on Mumbai coming soon. “The bottom of the pyramid”, where items can be bought for as little as a few thousand rupees, is just as exciting for founder Ashvin Rajagopalan as its top. His firm sells everything from the masterworks to vintage tins and Indian comics.
While there is no shortage of such items, the response can be uneven because these categories are underdeveloped. Rajagopal notes with candour how a sale of rare 1970s’ Indrajal Comics failed even though a previous auction of early Amar Chitra Katha editions had strong results. “We realised later on that the fans of Indrajal are much older, but Amar Chitra Katha, having survived for longer, draws interest from younger buyers.” According to him, Indians of Generation X and Y, raised on shows like Pawn Stars, are at least aware of the monetary value of holding stuff.
Digital overlay of Amrita Sher-Gil, Vivan Sundaram (Prinseps, April 2019)
Global auction powerhouses, which have centuries-long histories of holding sales in rooms, have been slowly expanding online in recent years. Indian auction houses, born in the internet age, have no struggles there. Besides, online is a component of live auctions now, as a medium for bidding and streaming. Purely online sales are convenient for well-heeled clients who may be located in other cities and geographies or who are too busy to show up at a specific venue at an appointed hour. At the recent India Art Fair, for instance, patrons were spotted sending in bids from their mobile phones for a Somnath Hore sculpture put under the hammer by Prinseps.
Online sales are also relatively less time-bound, often allowing from 24 hours up to multiple days of bidding. But the biggest draw for auctioneers is it does the job without the cost of printing catalogues and putting on a show. This too has encouraged the addition of relatively lower-value items as categories. Even so, most insiders agree that the drama of live bid-calling and paddle-raising is unmatched by the dull clicks of modern gadgets. Saffronart makes room for two adrenaline-filled offline auctions each year. Bid & Hammer too hosts a mix of floor and web-only sales.
The international auction powerhouses tend to attract more international buyers, whereas local counterparts are able to cater to local collectors without heavy transaction costs and import duties. Depending on the auction house, a flat 10 to 15 per cent commission is the norm. One challenge for the homegrown agents, says Sagar of Pundole’s, will be convincing younger and newer collectors that the price points at auction are not always high and prohibitive.
India and China are two markets where global auction giants face resistance. Yet, India is currently nowhere near China, whose homegrown auctioneers constitute six of the world’s top ten auction houses. The crucial difference is that those auctioneers are state-backed. Local auctioneers have a big wish list for the Indian government. Topping this list is the demand to ease duties so that artefacts including Indian antiquities can be brought into the country for less.
All told, the entry of new names in the auction market in recent years signals promise. “That number will increase,” says Dinesh Vazirani. “Especially once we start tapping into our 5,000 years of culture.”
