Riding the Elephant

Boom in India modern art market spreads through spring auctions

Uncertainties such as war do not deter, and maybe drive, bidding

Octogenarian Indian tycoons in the pharma and consumer industries are believed to have been not only the buyer but also the seller of an oil on canvas (below) by Raja Ravi Varma, a famous and stylish 19th century artist, that set an unexpectedly high record price of nearly $18m for Indian art two days ago at a Saffronart auction in Mumbai.

This was one of many records set for artists during hugely successful South Asia spring auctions over the past month. Saffronart led with a total of $30.78m, while in New York Christie’s totalled $27.1m (the highest ever outside India), and Sotheby’s scored  $22.1m. In Mumbai, Pundole’s totalled $12.1m. (All include buyer’s premium)

The buyer of the Ravi Varma was publicly announced by Saffronart – Cyrus Poonawala, founder and managing director of Serum Institute of India, one of the world’s largest producers of vaccine, including for Covid.

That was a rare event because top buyers such as Delhi’s Kiran Nadar usually object to being named. Poonawala said he was “fortunate to out-bid” her. 

Market sources suggest that the seller was Vivek Burman, former chair of Dabur, a prominent ayurvedic-to-consumer goods company, who was thought to possess the painting. The work however was being shown publicly for some years by the Delhi Art Gallery (DAG), including as recently as 2023 at the Art Mumbai art fair, making the ownership unclear – possibly joint between Burman and DAG. 

Poonawala’s winning bid (hammer price) of Rs140 crore ($11.29m) led to a total of Rs167 crore ($17.98m) including buyer’s premium. The previous record auction price of $13.5m was set a year ago at a Christie’s New York auction for a major work by M.F.Husain after an unexpectedly tough contest between two unusually persistent buyers, with Nadar winning for her large art museum, the KNMA, in Delhi.

It was not so much of a surprise that yesterday’s sale would set a new record. Dinesh Vazirani, Saffronart’s co-founder and ceo, seemed confident of a buyer when he showed the work with a $12m top hammer estimate in January on the margins of Delhi’s India Art Fair. Some viewers however were sceptical, given that Varma’s record then was just $5.3m, set in 2023. 

“This strong result demonstrates a new sense of pride in the ownership of iconic works of Indian modern art for those who can afford it. The extraordinary heritage they embody is a great bonus,” said Hugo Weihe, an independent Indian art advisor.

For the market, the significance is that top prices have reached unexpectedly high levels at a time when the Indian economy is buoyant, with fresh buyers entering the market and pushing up prices at all levels. Uncertainties such as war seem to drive buyers and investors towards safe commodities like art.

“The glass ceiling has been broken,” said Conor Macklin, who runs the Indian art-oriented Grosvenor Gallery in London and is a co-founder of Art Mumbai. “New benchmarks are being set.” Ashish Anand, DAG’s ceo, called the sale “a defining moment for the Indian art market”.

Titled Yashoda and Krishna, the 35in x 28in oil on canvas shows mythological figures of the infant Hindu god Lord Krishna and his foster mother Yashoda. Saffronart’s catalogue says Varma was interpreting “the universally resonant theme of maternal love…a subject strongly embedded in Indian culture and devotional sentiment.”   

“The Mona Lisa”

Anand yesterday described the work to the Indian Express as “a universal subject reminiscent as much of Madonna and Christ, or of any mother and child, and arguably the most iconic and desirable work, the Mona Lisa of Indian art”.

Varma died in 1906 so predates India’s leading modern artists such as M.F.Husain and Tyeb Mehta who usually top the auction sales. He married into the Keralan Travancore “royal” family and sought commissions from the rich and powerful in 19th century colonial India. Now he has a steady flow of buyers for his colourful and grand mix of European artistic styles and Indian life. Because of their vintage, his works are categorised as national treasures so cannot be exported, which vastly narrows the number of potential collectors.

Saffronart’s auction also included two works by M.F.Husain and S.H.Raza that exceeded $1m. Records up to and around $100,000 were set by other lesser known but significant artists such as Shanti Dave, Prakash Karmaker, Latika Katt and Haku Shah, showing how demand is increasing across various price ranges. 

In the other auctions, Christie’s star artist was Ganesh Pyne, who died in 2013. His auction record was beaten twice (images above and below) for relatively small (16in x 22in) tempera on canvas works painted in 1974. Crossing the Fountain made a record $2.27m, more than seven times the low estimate. Just two lots later, Encounter in the Twilight Zone sold for $2.52m, ten times the low estimate. 

Born in Kolkata, Pyne is one of the Bengal School of Art’s most notable contemporary artists. He developed his own style of what has been called “poetic surrealism, fantasy and dark imagery” around the themes of Bengali folklore and mythology with stories from his childhood. 

Christie’s $27m total was three times its total low estimate and saw eight artists’ records falling. The top result was Gesture, a 59in x 47in oil on canvas by Tyeb Mehta that went for almost twice its low estimate at $3.98m. 

Sotheby’s auction was led by M.F. Husain’s large (48in x 75in) Second Act (1958), which sold for $5.1m, almost doubling the low estimate after a six-minute bidding battle. Sotheby’s says that the work alludes to “Adam and Eve at the moment of expulsion from the Garden of Eden” and “transforms a biblical narrative into a powerful meditation on exile, intimacy, and estrangement”. Sold from the New York gallery collection of Navin Kumar, the work was earlier in the famous American collection of Chester and Davida Herwitz.

The second highest price was achieved for an F.N.Souza work, Mountain with Houses, which sold for $2.3m, five times estimates. Records were set for works by Vivek Sundaram and K.K.Hebbar who are significant and, ranked below the top masters, are gaining prominence in auctions.

The highlight of the Pundole sale was S.H. Raza’s Satpura painted in t984 which sold for Rs18.4 crore, ($1.99m). A range of works by Ram Kumar, a member of the Husain/Raja/Mehta Progressives Group, did well including two of his earliest exhibited paintings from 1949 and 1950.

The boom in India art is also leading to fresh activity by auction houses. Christie’s is returning to London with an auction in June after a gap of seven years, and Asta Guru, a Mumbai based Saffronart rival, is setting up a London gallery. Cyrus Poonawala’s son Adar last year took a 20% stake in AstaGuru, which has spurred expansion, so the publicity for the Ravi Varma record purchase will have helped raise the family profile on the art scene at an opportune time.