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Saffronart’s ‘Evening Sale’ Highlights!
Saffronart’s ‘Evening Sale’ in New Delhi set a world record with Amrita Sher-Gil’s ‘The Story Teller’ selling for INR 61.80 Crores (USD 7.44 Million), the highest price ever for an Indian artist. The event garnered INR 143.58 Crores (USD 17.29 Million) in total sales, attracting enthusiastic bids from global art collectors. Notably, artists like S H Raza, Tyeb Mehta, and F N Souza achieved high values for their works, while A Ramachandran, K K Hebbar, and Jagdish Swaminathan exceeded their estimated values significantly.
The much anticipated annual flagship ‘Evening Sale’ auction of Saffronart took place at New Delhi on Saturday, 16th September. Dinesh Vazirani, CEO and Co-Founder and Punya Nagpal, SVP of Saffronart conducted the Evening Sale auction. The auction featured 78 exceptional works by some of India’s best-known artists and pioneers of modern Indian art, including Amrita Sher-Gil, V S Gaitonde, S H Raza, Tyeb Mehta, F N Souza, Akbar Padamsee and M F Husain.
The short-lived art prodigy Amrita Sher-Gil stood tall amidst these giants of Modern Art in India with her painting ‘The Story Teller’ (Lot 13) being sold for INR 61.80 Crores (USD 7.44 Million). This winning bid figure can be put into the right perspective only by comparing it with its estimated auction price which was INR 28-38 crores. Such steep rise in the bid value has not only thrilled the art community but has raised the future anticipation to a new level. Amrita Sher-Gil’s famous quote “Europe belongs to Picasso, Matisse, Braque and many others. India belongs only to me.” has thus been revitalized.
Conforming to the expectations, S H Raza’s monumental painting ‘Earth’ (Lot 49) received a winning bid of INR 19.20 Crores (USD 2,313,253), against an estimate of INR 18 – 26 crores.
Tyeb Mehta’s ‘Red Figure’ (Lot 57) was the one to receive the third highest winning bid of the evening at INR 9.00 Crores (USD 1,084,337) against an estimate of INR 8 – 12 crores.
F N Souza’s painting titled ‘Caribbean Palm’ (Lot 67) received a winning bid at INR 4.56 Crores (USD 549,398) exceeding the estimate limit of INR 3.20 – 4.20 Crores by a good margin.
As art collectors across the globe raced against each other during the evening, the steepest rise in the bids was seen in case of A Ramachandran’s curiously titled work, ‘Autobiography of an Insect in the Lotus Pond’ (Lot 31). It was finally sold at INR 4.44 Crores (USD 534,940) which is nearly four times the estimate of INR 0.85 – 1.20 Crores. This sets a world record of the highest price achieved by the artist thus far globally.
Akbar Padamsee’s ‘Paysage’ (Lot 24) was another one to substantially exceed expectations at INR 4.08 Crores (USD 491,566) against an estimate of INR 2.0 – 3.0 Crores.
K K Hebbar’s ‘Untitled (Market place)’ (Lot 43) surpassed estimates by an unimaginable margin at INR 2.64 Crores (USD 318,072) against an estimate of INR 0.25 – 0.35 Crores.
Jagdish Swaminathan’s untitled work (Lot 44) fetched INR 2.28 Crores (USD 274,699) far exceeded the estimate of INR 1.00 – 1.50 Crores.
M F Husain’s ‘Untitled (Family)’ (Lot 22) with INR 1.68 Crores (USD 202,410) winning bid fell fairly within the estimate of INR 1.20 – 2.00 Crores.
Jamini Roy’s Untitled work (Lot 5) exceeded the expectations greatly with sale value at INR 1.68 Crores (USD 202,410) which was more than twice the estimate was at INR 0.40 – 0.60 Crores.
Total Winning Value (inclusive of buyer`s premium) of the Evening Sale stood at INR 1,43,58,84,000 (USD 17,299,807) comprising of 76 lots out of the 78 lots presented, thus achieving a 97% sale. Interestingly, two lots particularly of Vasudeo Gaitonde (Lot 39) and Zarina Hashmi (Lot 76) remained unsold in this auction.
Art collectors and art enthusiasts can explore further details on the website of Saffronart.
Website: www.saffronart.com | Facebook: @saffronart | Instagram: @saffronartindia
Vineel Bhurke
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