NEW YORK: Sotheby’s sale results for Indian art on Wednesday were lackluster with the hyped out auction for modern paintings and miniatures fetching $6.3 million which was below general expectations.
Sotheby’s, the world’s second-largest auction house had pegged presale estimates between $6.4 and $9.4 million, but Wednesday’s auction in New York undersold below the lower estimate. There were 114 lots up for sale, but in a telling sign of market weakness, art collectors passed on 28 works. Eight-six works finally went under the hammer.
A lot of the bidding was done over the phone and most of the strong bids above $500,000 came from overseas corporate buyers. India’s best known painter Maqbool Fida Husain is still red-hot. Five of his paintings surpassed presale valuations and his great compelling nude Pagan Mother commanded top dollar, selling for $658,600.
“Four works by Husain were included in the top ten, and of these, Husain’s Pagan Mother achieved the second highest price by the artist at auction,” said Zara Porter Hill, the head of Sotheby’s Indian and Southeast Asian Art department.
A number of rare and unusual works also brought exceptional prices, including Herman Linde’s Girl Standing in a Veranda Wearing a Pochampalli Sari, a record for the artist at the auction, and a work on paper by Rabindranath Tagore.”
Rameshwar Broota’s The Other Space sold for $601,000 while an untitled work by Syed Haider Raza went under the hammer for $409,000.
“The Indian art market has rallied strongly in the last three to four years. It is going through a correction now after coming to a point of saturation. There is no shortage of works,” Kent Charugundla, owner of the Tamarind Art Gallery in New York, who participated in the auction, told DNA. Turn to back page, p18
The auction has given merit to good works while dropping the ball on mediocre stuffKent Charugundla, owner of the Tamarind Art Gallery in New York,
Shireen Gandhy, owner of Chemould Gallery couldn’t agree more. “The undersell at Sotheby’s points to the fact that we have overpriced ourselves. This is a good time to reevaluate the price market as far as Indian art goes, especially after riding on an all time high with regard to sales,” said Gandhy.
