India’s priciest works of art

An informative essay by art writer Jhupu Adhikari (Oct 31, 2010; The Financial Chronicle) sheds light on some of the most expensive Indian paintings. He begins by stating: “I believe it will be of interest to art lovers, to know about these works by Raza, Souza, Mehta and other illustrious artists.”

S H Raza’s ‘Saurashtra’:
The veteran Indian painter heads this list. He has been residing in France for over half a century, though India and Indian ethos remains his primary inspiration.At Christie’s summer auction this June, his 200 cm x 200 cm acrylic on canvas work fetched Rs16.42 crore. It thus became the most expensive painting by any Indian artist.

The work painted in 1983 was bought by a French collector from the artist who this year decided to put it up for sale. According to him, this one is among the 10 most important painting he has done. The work provides a glimpse of his signature style. The geometrical shapes and primary colors he is renowned for, seem to be not quite as precise and well-defined as in most of his works, Jhupu Adhikari notes.

FN Souza’s ‘Birth’:
The painting depicts a pregnant woman and priest. It follows the legendary artist’s bold style of dark lines to delineate what can be termed a very sombre work. It was sold for Rs 11.5 crore at Christie’s Summer 2008 auction. There is a significant gap of over crore between the sale price of Raza’s work and that by Souza.

Tyeb Mehta Untitled (figure on a rickshaw)
The late artist managed to break his own previous record with this Untitled (figure on a rickshaw) work, when it went for Rs 8.2 crore at the Christie’s 2008 auction. His earlier work, among his most famous, ‘Mahisasura’, had then made a record for Indian art, fetching Rs 6.8 crore. This was in 2005.

Husain’s Untitled
In fourth place is none other than MF Husain. His painting depicting four horses and a female rider got Rs 2 crore at one of Saffronart’s online spring auction. In fact, this was the highest price earned via mobile bidding.

Jehangir Sabavala’s ‘The Casuarina Line 1’
This one was a world-record auction price for the painter. It got Rs 1.7 crore at Saffronart’s sale in June 2010.