Christie’s Lifts Indian Art Market from Sotheby’s Gloom
THE INDEPENDENT
By John Elliot
UNITED KINGDOM -- Congratulations tinged with relief was the message being given by dealers and collectors at the end of Christie’s South Asian modern art auction here yesterday to the event’s main organizers, Hugo Weihe and Yamini Mehta. Its top sale was a magnificent Tyeb Mehta depiction of Mahishasura. Based on a Hindu legend of a demon-king and a she-buffalo producing a son, it went for its lowest estimate of £1.2m (£1.38m – $2.15m with buyer’s premium). It showed that Mehta, who was less prolific that most other members of India’s Progressive Group of painters, is maintaining good prices, though it was far short of both the £1.8m bid that had been hoped for, and Mehta’s record £1.97m (including premium) achieved at the same auction last year. The auctions have coincided with the death a year ago of M.F.Husain, the doyen and probably the most prolific of India’s Progressives. [link]
By John Elliot
UNITED KINGDOM -- Congratulations tinged with relief was the message being given by dealers and collectors at the end of Christie’s South Asian modern art auction here yesterday to the event’s main organizers, Hugo Weihe and Yamini Mehta. Its top sale was a magnificent Tyeb Mehta depiction of Mahishasura. Based on a Hindu legend of a demon-king and a she-buffalo producing a son, it went for its lowest estimate of £1.2m (£1.38m – $2.15m with buyer’s premium). It showed that Mehta, who was less prolific that most other members of India’s Progressive Group of painters, is maintaining good prices, though it was far short of both the £1.8m bid that had been hoped for, and Mehta’s record £1.97m (including premium) achieved at the same auction last year. The auctions have coincided with the death a year ago of M.F.Husain, the doyen and probably the most prolific of India’s Progressives. [link]
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