How a pedigreed collector realised she was sitting on a treasure trove of Indian classical art

While Indian collectors scour galleries high and low all over the world in search of prized modern masters, sometimes they don't realise the worth of homegrown classical treasures that adorn their walls.

The latter was the case with the matriarch of a reputable business family, known for her vast collection of modern art. The lady possessed an enviable series of pahadi paintings by Harbhajan Singh Chawla, a well known miniature painter. Chawla was her grandfather's family friend and had gifted her 18 miniature paintings at her wedding. However, she was unaware of the artworks' high value until someone pointed it out to her.

One of the paintings had been smudged in a corner and would have been worth much more, if not for the blemish. When it was brought to the art collector's attention, she laughed and recalled that at the time the paintings were delivered to her house, her grandfather placed a wet towel on one of them. He could have hardly comprehended that he was putting a dampener on a fortune.