Up for sale

It takes an hour or two to get done with. At the very outset, add another half-an-hour. Two hundred works of 90 contemporary Indian artists...

It takes an hour or two to get done with. At the very outset, add another half-an-hour. Two hundred works of 90 contemporary Indian artists are auctioned off within this time, between sips of vintage wine and munchies. "The bidding happens very fast," said Dermont Chichester, chairman, Christie, South Kensington Ltd, while talking to his Indian audience when he was in Delhi a couple of weeks ago.

Of the three major India-sourced auctions scheduled at the Christie’s London office next month and later this year, Chichester and Amrita Jhaveri, Christie’s Indian chapter chief, were in the capital with the first — a selection of contemporary Indian art — to be sold in US Dollar prices on June 4. The other two aquatints of colonial or Raj painters and chunky Mughal jewellery, were only mentioned in passing. There was no showing in Mumbai as around only 15 works were sourced from the city. And shipping all the works over would have been very cumbersome.

And fruitless too. As most buyers wouldn’t be from India, though they might be of Indian origin. The works of Indian artists were kept for a day’s display in Delhi to enable a last look at a bit of what’s going away. "Mainly to NRI’s and to one or two Americans, Britishers and Japanese," says Chichester, on the composition of the Buyers (referred with a big `B’ in the auctioneer’s catalogue).

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During his trip, Chichester said little and answered even less. He left most of the pesky queries for Jhaveri to tackle. And they worked smoothly as a team giving the feeling that it’s a well-rehearsed duet.

Jhaveri diverted attention from Chichester’s defensive gestures, to serve the official line. "We are very very careful about what we are auctioning. We know Indian laws are stringent, that’s why we have restricted ourselves to contemporary Indian art.We have sourced three-fourths of collection from the US and UK and only a small portion from India with Vadhera’s (Gallery) help," she said.

In the bidder’s catalogue, Christie’s have carefully mentioned the dates. A Raja Ravi Verma oil-on-canvas, `Portrait of a Lady in an Ivory Saree,’ is signed and dated 20/5/97 (has to be 1897). Verma (1848-1906) happens to head the Heritage Artists’ list, so how are they trading without any hindrance? Jhaveri says quickly, "I have with me a list of Heritage Artists. Most of these works come from non-resident collectors or foreigners living abroad."

But the names of the collections are a closely guarded secret. "Protected with the company’s word of honour," she adds. The contemporary works are mostly by artists alive and working. Hence, apart from escalating art prices back home and increasing the collections of some individual buyers abroad, the auction would have little effect. When it comes to Indian art it is invariably the `artist’ and `the price’ and never the particular `work’ that gets the attention.

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Not for once is it mentioned that Ram Kumar’s `Benaras’ (part of a famous series) or a rare Syed Haider Raza work dated 1958 and titled `A Church’ are up for bidding. Artists from the early part of the century — Gopal Damodar Deuskar, Manchershaw Pithawalla or Goan portrait painter Antonio Xavier Trindade were not mentioned even by Jhaveri, our homegrown expert on contemporary Indian art.

Commenting on the likely stars of the June 4 bidding, Jhaveri indicated N S Bendre, K K Hebbar and maybe Tyeb Mehta paintings. Again in bulk — three Bendres estimated between $41,000 and $12,000 and two Tyebs and three Behhar’s put at $ 20,000 are expected to fetch much more. About the — `Vision of India’ — sale of aquatints of colonial paintings by the Daniells, Francois Balthazar Solvyns, and others, the Christie’s spokesperson sums up: "They are pleasing pictures, easy to live with."

This describes the Christie’s collection and the market sentiment more than anything else. The rest will be hammered out in due course.