Christie's Sees Resurgence in Cont Indian

The Indian site, BombayNews.net, was invited to Christie’s preview of its Southeast Asian Modern and Contemporary art sale that will take place in mid-September in New York. The auction house had brought seven of the 104 works that will be sold to the Oberoi hotel:

‘It is one of our strongest sales this season in terms of value and quality. Unlike last year, when modern masters were in great demand, this year the contemporary artists are back to the market and are holding on their own in prices,’ Hugo K. Weihe, international director of Asian art and the international specialist head, Indian and Southeast Asian art, told IANS.

‘The art market is still in the process of re-energising itself. We are lucky to have procured some top quality contemporary art works that did not come to the market last year,’ he added.

The art works included an ‘untitled figure drawing of women’ by Jamini Ray estimated at $20,000, ‘La Terre’ by Syed Haider Raza estimated at $2,500,00, an ‘untitled’ drawing of a large head by F.N. Souza priced at $1,800,000, an untitled ‘sitar player’ by M.F. Husain estimated at $500,000, ‘Two Cows’ by Subodh Gupta priced at $350,000, ‘Karuna’ by Atul Dodiya priced at $150,000 and ‘Kalki’ by Atul Dodiya estimated at $250,000.