A Rolls Royce car, paintings of famous artists M F Hussain and Amrita Sher-Gil, designer handbags and other luxury items belonging to fugitive diamond jeweller Nirav Modi garnered over Rs 51 crore in the second auction conducted on Thursday.
Husain’s 1972 work, titled, ‘Battle of Ganga and Jamuna: Mahabharata 12’ sold for Rs 13.44 crore at the auction.
A total of 40 lots — 15 artworks, a 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost and a selection of limited-edition and luxury handbags and watches — were sold at the auction. Artist Arpita Singh’s ‘Twenty-Seven Ducks of Memory’ fetched a price below its lower limit of Rs 1.2 crore, which was the only item among all that were put up on sale.
The work of art that fetched the highest price was the 1935 Amrita Sher-Gil painting, titled, ‘Boys With Lemons’, which sold for rs 15.68 crore, which was in line with its estimated range. According to the Artery India Price Databank, this is Sher-Gil’s fifth-highest selling work. This was followed by the Husain and VS Gaitonde’s untitled work from 1972, which sold for Rs 9.52 crore, just above its higher estimate.
An untitled 1992 Manjit Bawa painting, which sold for Rs 6.16 crore, is a second-best for the artist. The auction, which was held at the Saffronart gallery in Mumbai, also saw massive competitive bidding from buyers on the phone — from New York and Zurich to Navi Mumbai and Jaipur — trying to outbid each other for the designer handbags and watches. The highest-selling watch was the Girard-Perregaux: ‘Opera One’ Triple Brodge Tourbillon, which had a higher estimate of Rs 5 lakh, but fetched Rs 95.20 lakh.
Earlier, Bombay high court on Wednesday refused to stay the auction of 15 paintings, seized by the ED, belonging to Modi. The court while passing the order on the petition filed by Modi’s son also made a provision that the proceeds of the auction be kept in a national bank and the receipt submitted to the court.
