Global Art Market
At Rs.51.75 crore, ‘Gestation’ puts S.H. Raza at the highest level of Indian art
Even if only in the short term, August 31 was a crucial day for Indian art history. On that Thursday, “Gestation”, a 1989 S.H. Raza painting, sold at a Pundole’s auction in Mumbai for Rs.51.75 crore ($6.27 million). The final price more than doubled Pundole’s original Rs.25 crore upper estimate, making “Gestation” the most expensive Indian artwork ever to be sold at an auction. “These records will keep changing hands. Before this, we sold a Gaitonde for a little less. This time, it was Raza,” says Dadiba Pundole, owner of Pundole’s. In 2022, an untitled 1969 painting by V.S. Gaitonde sold for Rs.48.3 crore.
The “Gestation” sale signals a new dynamism in the Indian art market and also a maturing. Pundole says, “Significant works don’t come around every day, but when they do, Indians can now recognise their significance.” Sonal Singh, Managing Director of Christie’s India, tells Frontline, “It is overdue that there is such a movement of prices for high quality works with excellent provenance which are increasingly hard to find.” In 2018, Raza’s large-scale “Tapovan” had sold at a Christie’s auction in New York for Rs.28 crore, and in 2010, his “Saurashtra” had sold for Rs.16.3 crore. Singh says, “There has been a lot of interest in Raza’s works for a long time—our auction of ‘Tapovan’ is an example of this. In 2010, Christie’s sold ‘Saurashtra’, which was also the world record for Indian art at the time. Raza is one of the key artists in the history of modern Indian art, and he is recognised as this at a global level.”
Artmarket.com, an Art Market global player with a strong emphasis on data, databases, and AI technology, reports numerous achievements including state recognition, innovative partnerships, and the successful implementation of a Standardized Market Place for art transactions. The company, which is geared towards a sustainable and tech-forward future, engages a large member base and is recognized for its eco-responsible initiatives.
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Global Art Market
Christie’s CEO on hopes for new Asia HQ in Hong Kong, and its place in global art market
The usually smooth back and forth between auctioneer and bidder had an unexpected hitch during the sale of the top lot in Christie’s evening sale in Hong Kong on September 26.
Xin Li, deputy chairman at Christie’s, indicated to veteran auctioneer Adrien Meyer that her client on the phone wanted to place a bid for Vincent van Gogh’s Les Canots Amarrés (1887).
Instead of just adding a standard increment to the last bid, which was already at around HK$200 million (US$25.7 million), she hesitated and then blurted: “26 million!” Her client, it
“You can either buy clothes or buy pictures.” (Gertrude Stein)
The air will be filled with a different kind of buzz in Seoul this week as it hosts the third annual international art fair, Frieze Seoul. Over 110 leading art galleries worldwide will assemble for four days at the COEX Convention and Exhibition Center in Gangnam to showcase various works of contemporary art to guests and collectors. There promises to be no shortage of side events taking place throughout the city in coordination with the exhibit. Attendance this year is expected to be similar to the past two years at about 70,000 participants, which is larger than Frieze Los Angeles (roughly 35,000) and Frieze New York (roughly 25,000) combined but still slightly smaller than Art Basel Hong Kong or Frieze London (each at about 85,000). The event is part of a broader trend that suggests South Korea is emerging as a tour de force in the art world.
Read more: https://keia.org/the-peninsula/south-koreas-emergence-as-a-hub-in-the-global-art-market/
