Art

Saffronart, an online auction house based in Mumbai, has outdone Christie’s and Sotheby’s in its online sales of contemporary Indian art, with a 100 percent sale valued at $12.5 million. According to Anu Nanavati Chaddha,

director of Saffronart Gallery in New York, despite having the lowest buyers’ premium in the world, this sale is the highest value auction in the world, exceeding Christie’s 2005 sale by 50 percent and the Sotheby’s 2005 sale by 90 percent.

It seems incredible that people are bidding such high figures on the Internet, but according to Chaddha, 400 bidders from 12 countries participated in the auction, and 94 percent of the lots sold above the high estimate price. She says, “The company is headquartered in Bombay and we hold 3 auctions a year. The sale is held online. The works are previewed in New York and Bombay so people are able to view them prior to the auction.”

The star lot of the sale was a 1955 work of F.N. Souza titled Lovers estimated at $375,000 -475,000, which sold at $ 1.5 million, breaking all previous records for the artist’s work in public sales. A diptych by Akbar Padamsee titled Serial Image sold at $500,000, almost 2.5 times the higher estimate price and marking the highest price for Padamsee’s work globally. A 1976 paper work by Jogen Chowdhury titled In Search for a Dream sold at $ 187,776, over nine times its estimate! Yes, this may be the Internet but it isn’t E-Bay!