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Art by desi contemporaries interests foreign collectors

Thursday, 11 September 2008

Contemporary artist Subodh Gupta's oil painting sold at a whopping Rs 4.28 crore at the recent art auction where bidders from 32 countries competed with each other for over a hundred works of art by Indian contemporaries. Gupta's, 'Idol Thief' depicting a theatre of polished pans, and other shiny, stainless steel kitchen utensils, along with another oil on canvas painting 'Saat Samundar Paar,'went under the hammer for Rs 3.4 crores were the highlights at the Saffronart autumn online auction. The auction registered sales of Rs 29 crores about 72 per cent in excess of its estimates. The artist from Bihar is among the clutch of Indian artists who have witnessed a fairly impressive rise in the past few years with younger artists blending indigenous and international traditions to attract customers, and fetching millions in auctions, mostly conducted by foreign auction houses. British auction house Sotheby's recently sold Raqib Shaw's 'The Garden of Earthly Delights 111' for USD 5, 491, 7555. The auction house did business of upto USD 40, 697,437 of Indian modern, contemporary and ancient art pieces in 2007 while crossing the figure of USD 20,607,6348 already this year. "Indian contemporary art is no longer foreign to art collectors from the Western countries. A Subodh Gupta art work is not necessarily Indian. It can be from any part of the world," says Henry Howard-Sneyd, deputy chairman of Sotheby's Europe and Asia operations. PTI Comments Add New Search Only registered users can write comments!