Artworks once part of PNB-scam accused Nirav Modi's collection seen on display ahead of their auction at a gal... Read More

MUMBAI: In a first of its kind auction in the country, 55 rare oil paintings by some of India’s finest artists seized from fugitive jeweller Nirav Modi ’s collection by tax authorities went under the hammer on Tuesday and fetched Rs 54 crore. The works included those by V S Gaitonde, Raja Ravi Varma, F N Souza, K K Hebbar, Jogen Chowdhury , Akbar Padamsee, Arpana Caur and a selection of contemporary Chinese paintings.

Leading the sales was an untitled oil on canvas by Gaitonde that sold for Rs 22 crore, making it the fourth most expensive painting by the artist and among the top ten most expensive artworks by any Indian artist till date. The 1973 painting with a fiery orange surface, interspersed by dark horizontal bands with two yellow orbs punctuating the painting in the middle, had previously been exhibited in New York’s The Solomon R Guggenheim Museum and later at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice between 2014 and 2016.

A rare oil painting by the 19th century artist Raja Ravi Varma—now a non-exportable national treasure—illustrating the welcoming party for the third Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Richard Temple- Grenville, on his official visit to Trivandrum in 1880 fetched the second highest hammer price of Rs 14 crore.

Souza proved a favourite, with lots by the artist witnessing fierce bidding over the phone, online and in the room with his vibrant Cityscape, 1974, painted a few years after his move to New York from London , and Golly-Wog, 1958, crossing their higher estimates. The auction also witnessed enthusiastic bidding for the five works by contemporary Chinese artists, with Xu Lei’s The End of the World, 2009 selling at nearly five times its estimated price.

The income tax department undertook the auction of these art works owned by Nirav Modi after a special court in Mumbai permitted them to put them under the hammer and deposit the proceeds in court. Modi, who was arrested by Scotland Yard last week, was produced before a London court which rejected his bail plea. He will be in judicial custody till March 29.

The paintings had been put online for public viewing between March 15 and 25, before the auction went live on Tuesday. Bids for the art works started at Rs 8 crore and the auction was conducted by Saffronart on behalf of the tax recovery officer, I-T Department. Apart from the bidding price, bidders would also have to dole out a buyer’s premium ranging between 12% and 15% to the auctioning company and pay government taxes on it. The bidders will need to pay up 10% of the total bid money in the next four days and the remaining within a month.

