New York: Sotheby’s kicked off the Indian art sale season in New York on a strong note, raising nearly $15 million from the sale of miniatures and modern paintings, its highest ever in this category. Interestingly, many of the top buyers were not Indian, a sign of the growing appeal of Indian art.
Top billing at the Sotheby’s sale of Indian miniatures and modern paintings in New York went to Francis Newton Souza’s Man with Monstrance, which was sold for $1.36 million including the buyer’s premium, to a private collector in Singapore.
Also in the same league were an untitled work by Tyeb Mehta which went for $1.2 million to an anonymous bidder, and a V S Gaitonde, also untitled, which was bought by a Japanese private collector for $1.1 million on a bid of just under a million.
Only three of the top ten bids were identified as coming from Indian private collectors. In all, the sale raised a record-breaking $14.8 million.
Chief Executive Officer, Gallery Arts India, New York, Prajit Dutta told SAW, “There’s more volume compared to March, yet prices are 30 per cent-40 per cent higher. There are a lot of foreign buyers. They are not the majority, but they used to be non-existent. So, a lot of people overseas are taking note of what’s happening in the Indian arts scene.”
This year, anticipating strong demand, Sotheby’s split its sale of Indian art into two categories, miniatures and modern paintings, to be followed by contemporary art on Friday. And with Christie’s holding its auction of Indian art on Wednesday, where over 13 paintings are listed at half a million dollars or more, this season should prove to be a bonanza for Indian art.
Million dollar bids for Indian modern art at auctions in New York have now become so routine, that there’s only a buzz if they don’t come up. And Sotheby’s didn’t disappoint on this front, with a couple of bids of over a million dollars each, and a third nearing that amount.
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