Nirav Modi asset auction fetches Rs 51 crore to ED

Mumbai:Bags costing tens of lakhs of rupees. Watches worth almost a crore. And rare artworks selling for record prices. That’s all that exchanged hands on Thursday evening at an art gallery in South Mumbai.

The wealthy from the city and around the world, present personally or connected through the phone or the internet, bid aggressively pus-hing up the prices beyond the auctioneer’s estimates.

On sale were 40 items confiscated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) from fugitive jeweller Nirav Modi’s Mumbai residence to recover some of the money he’s alleged to have siphoned off. The sale fetched the exchequer Rs 51.4 crore. This number does not include tax or the buyer’s premium that the auction house, Saffronart, said.


Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are the prime accused in the $2-billion Punjab National Bank fraud.

The lots auctioned on Thursday included a never-before-auctioned painting by artist Amrita Sher-Gil and another painting from artist MF Husain’s Mahabharata series.

The latter became the most expensive work by the artist ever auctioned at Rs 13.44 crore.

Also among the lots were much-sought-after bags from luxury goods manufacturer Hermès, a host of rare watches and a Rolls Royce Ghost car.

Prior to Thursday’s live bidding, 72 luxury accessories belonging to Modi had already found buyers in an online auction held on Tuesday and Wednesday, fetching about Rs 2 crore collectively. The two auctions put together raised Rs 53.45 crore.

Earlier, Modi’s son Rohin had moved the Bombay High Court, seeking a stay on the auction. He contested that the paintings seized by ED belonged to Rohin Trust and not to his father. Subsequently, the auction was postponed from its origi-nal date of February 27.

However, a division bench of Acting Chief Justice BP Dharmadhikari and Justice N R Borkar on Wednesday refused to stay the auction. A similar auction was held in March last year to sell paintings and other artworks seized by the Income Tax department, which raised Rs 54.84 crore. With this, over Rs 100 crore have been recovered so far by government agencies by selling off Modi’s belongings.