Indian works a hit at Christie’s sale in HK

KOLKATA: Contemporary Indian works have attracted keen interest from a wide range of collectors at Christie���s Asian Contemporary Art sale in Hong Kong. Together with artists like TV Santosh and Jitish Kallat, other names which drew buyers include Farhad Hussain and Zakkir Hussain.

���Christie���s concluded its Asian Contemporary Art sale with a solid show of support for the category, including strong Asian private buying, as well as extensive cross-category and cross-cultural purchases. Contemporary Indian works saw concerted bids from a wide range of collectors,��� Dr Hugo Weihe told ET in an email from Hong Kong.

Dr Weihe is international director of Asian art and specialist head, Indian and Southeast Asian art at Christie���s .

���We were encouraged to see active interest, both in the day and evening sale, from an increasing number of non-Indian buyers, signalling the growing appreciation of Indian contemporary art within the larger context of Asian contemporary art,��� Dr Weihe added. On the price front, two works by TV Santosh, Hundred Square Feet of Curses and Your Path of Angst - II went for HK $7,40,000 (US $95,238) and HK $2,75,000 (US $35,393), respectively.

In the same breath, Jitish Kallat���s Universal Recipient 1 was picked up for HK $8,60,000 (US $110,682) while Farhad Hussain���s Sequence Four sold at HK $1,50,000 (US $19,305).

Christie���s representative in India Menaka Shah summed up: ���Sale results for the Indian works in the Asian Contemporary day and evening sales at Christie���s Hong Kong proved there is strong demand from local and international bidders alike, with the evening sale lots being sold to non-Indian bidders eventually. From the overall standpoint, there was active participation from bidders across the globe, reinforcing the strength in the category.���