An untitled landscape painted by Amrita Sher-Gil sold for Rs 4.75 crores (USD 720,000) at Saffronart's online auction, which fetched a total sales of Rs 20.65 crores (USD 3.12 million), auctioneers said on Friday.
Sher-Gil's Untitled (Zebegeny Landscape) led the sale against a pre-sale estimate of Rs 3.9 crores to Rs 5.2 crores (USD 600,000 – 800,000).
Sher-Gil was the country's foremost woman artist, whose brief career spanning just over a decade had a deep impact on Indian art. Made in 1931, the landscape was painted during a summer holiday she spent in the Hungarian village of Zebegeny on the banks of the Danube.
An Untitled work (after Titian's Venus of Urbino and Manet's Olympia) by F N Souza sold for Rs 1.22 crores (USD 186,000) compared to a pre-sale estimate of Rs 1.1 - 1.3 crores (USD 170,000 – 200,000).
Subodh Gupta's stainless steel installation, sold for Rs 1.10 crores (USD 168,000), against an initial estimate of Rs 99 lakhs to Rs 1.3 crores (USD 150,000 - 200,000).
S H Raza's 'Horizon', sold for over Rs 1 crore (USD 153,000) against an estimate of Rs 66 lakhs to Rs 99 lakhs (USD 100,000 – 150,000).
Nearly 24 per cent of the lots sold above their upper estimates.
Two paintings by Ghulam Rasool Santosh almost tripled their upper estimates of Rs 5.28 lakhs (USD 8,000) and Rs 3.3 lakhs (USD 5,000) to fetch winning bids of Rs 14.65 lakhs (USD 22,212) and Rs 10.89 lakhs (USD 16,500) respectively.
K K Hebbar's 1959 painting 'Tile Factory', almost doubled its upper estimate of Rs 23 lakhs (USD 35,000), selling for Rs 40.78 lakhs (USD 61,800).
Lot 57, Biren De's 1968 oil on canvas 'The Moment', also tripled its upper estimate of Rs 7.92 lakhs (USD 12,000) fetching a winning bid of Rs 24.9 lakhs (USD 37,800).
Among the contemporary Indian artists, there was strong demand for works by Sudarshan Shetty and Chintan Upadhyay.
Shetty's 2005 acrylic on canvas, sold at RS 14.72 lakhs (USD 22,309) against a pre-sale estimate of Rs 6 - Rs 8 lakhs (USD 9,095 – 12,125).
"We were delighted to see very active international bidding, including bids placed via our mobile platform. There were many rare pieces with unusual history and at various attractive price points, so we are very gratified by the broad appeal it generated," Hugo Weihe, CEO, Saffronart said.
IMAGE: Amrita Sher-Gil's Zebegeny Landscape was sold at a whopping Rs 4.75 crore. Photograph: saffronart.com
