Saffronart’s Autumn Online Auction of Contemporary Indian art finished on Thursday, making a total sale value of approximately Rs 29 crores ($7.2 million), about 72% in excess of the low estimate.

At the sale, world auction records were set for 18 Indian artists, including T V Santhosh, Anju Dodiya, Sudhir Patwardhan, G R Iranna, Mithu Sen, Anita Dube, Sudarshan Shetty, Anil Revri, Tushar Joag, Manisha Parekh, Debanjan Roy, Phaneendra Nath Chaturvedi, Kishor Shinde, Chitra Ganesh, Ravikumar Kashi, Ram Bali Chauhan, Mayyur Kailash Gupta and Nicola Durvasula.

Subodh Gupta works, Idol Thief about his theatre of polished pans, milkpails and other shiny, stainless steel kitchen utensils, and Saat Samundar Paar on the baggage and the dreams of Indians going abroad to an almost bonded lifestyle to bring back goods for their families, both estimated between Rs 2-2.8 crore, each sold for Rs 4.28 crore and Rs 3.4 crore.

104 of the lots sold from a total of 130, 86 of them breaching the higher estimates. Overall, against a low estimate of Rs 16.6 crore and a high estimate of Rs 21.20 crore, the auction realised a value of Rs 28.60 crore, including the buyer’s premium.

“It was great,” said Saffronart’s Dinesh Vazirani on the conclusion of the two-day online auction, “to see a wide participation of bidders and the strong momentum in the Indian contemporary market.”

Posted: 09|6|08 at 9:05 am. Filed under: Asia.