Sotheby's draws $3.2m from South Asian lots

KOLKATA: Sotheby’s sale of South Asian contemporary art in New York, the second of this genre in New York by the auction house, has raked in $3.2 million.

While a clutch of Pakistani artists figured in the auction, the bulk of the artists were Indian. Of the 80 lots going under the hammer, 59 were picked up by buyers. In terms of lots, the auction sold 73.8% of the works. On the basis of value, the sale achieved 92.1% of the total value.

Atul Dodiya’s work,Father, created a record for the artist at a price of $601,000. This value was way above the pre-sale estimate of $230,000-280 ,000. Interestingly, Dodiya’s work was acquired by a private Chinese collector . On the heels of Dodiya, a work by Chintan Upadhyay also established a record. Upadhyay’s New Indians raked in $529,000 against an estimate of $400,000-500 ,000.

In third spot was Atul Dodiya’s Man from Kabul, which went for $313,000. This figure again outstripped the presale estimate of $100,000-150 ,000 by a sizable margin. The work was bought by a Chinese private collector. Subodh Gupta’s Untitled painting was purchased by an Indian for $277,000 compared to the estimate of $200,000-250 ,000.

A T V Santosh Untitled was picked up for $205,000, which shot past its estimate of $20,000-30 ,000 by a whopping margin. A Chinese private collector was again involved in lapping up Santosh’s work for this hefty sum.

Shibu Natesan’s Oriental Lady was bought by an Indian dealer for $85,000 against an estimate of $60,000-80 ,000. An Indian art dealer also acquired a Jyothi Basu Untitled, which set an auction record for the artist at $82,600. Basu’s pre-sale estimate was $30,000-50 ,000. An American dealer collected a G Ravinder Reddy Untitled for $70,600 against an estimated price of $40,000-60 ,000.

Two works by Pakistani artists Rashid Rana’s The World is Not Enough and Zarina Hashmi’s Phool swung prices of $91,000 and $73,000, beating their estimates by healthy margins.

In an e-mail from New York, Sotheby’s head of the Indian & South-east Asian Art department Zara Porter Hill said: “The sale established a number of artist records, including Atul Dodiya, Chintan Upadhyay, Jyothi Basu and Zarina Hashmi. There was a very strong showing across all media — for paintings and sculpture — as well as photography and video installations, the newest part of this category. There was a particular diversity of buying in the sale with participation from around the globe.”