9th Sept, 2008

KOLKATA : Well-known domestic auctioneer Saffronart has clocked sales of Rs 29 crore in its autumn auction of contemporary Indian art. The sale value has outstripped the overall low estimate by 72%. Eighteen world auction records have been achieved, with 4 lots selling for over Rs 1 crore. Leading contemporary artist Subodh Gupta has gone for over Rs 4 crore.

The top five lots of the auction were Subodh Gupta's Idol Thief I which fetched Rs 4.28 crore, while another Gupta piece Saat Samundar Par (Across the seven seas) went for Rs 3.4 crore. At the same time, TV Santhosh's When Your Target Cries for Mercy sold for Rs 2.8 crore, Anju Dodiya's ‘The Site' Rs 1.06 crore and Sudhir Patwardhan's ‘The Clearing' was picked up for Rs 93.15 lakh.

In the same breath, individual world auction records were scaled by 18 Indian artists. The names include TV Santhosh, Anju Dodiya, Sudhir Patwardhan, GR Iranna, Mithu Sen, Anita Dube, Sudarshan Shetty, Anil Revri, Tushar Joag, Manisha Parekh, Debanjan Roy, PN Chaturvedi, Kishor Shinde, Chitra Ganesh, Ravikumar Kashi, Ram Chauhan, Mayur Gupta and Nicola Durvasula.

With 575 bidders participating from 32 countries, several lots have crossed their higher estimates including TV Santosh's catalogue cover dyptich and works by Subodh Gupta, Riyas Komu, Anandajit Ray, GR Iranna, Tushar Joag, Dhananjay Singh and George Martin.

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