An exceptional painting by Tyeb Mehta depicting demon 'Mahishasura' sold for a whopping Rs 4.56 crore at an auction here that saw remarkable enthusiasm among the buyers.
Mehta's "Head Studies of Mahishasura", a work charged with visual and symbolist anxiety, generated spirited bidding and was the most expensive sale of the Osian's Masterpieces Series Auction.
The auction brought together a remarkable range of historically significant works of fine art by India's finest masters of modern and contemporary art, with a full house witnessing strong bidding for all the top lots.
All the major high value lots sold well at strong prices.
The auction held this weekend registered a total sale of Rs 18.73 crore fulfilling the pre-auction expectations, auction house Osian's said in a statement on Tuesday.
While the recession has concerned the art market for the past two years or so, the relatively strong support from both the national and international collector is a good sign of the recovery in the art market, it said.
Art enthusiasts also bid fervently for works by Akbar Padamsee, S H Raza and Rameshwar Broota, with each of their works fetching well over a crore. While Padamsee's "Christ" sold for Rs 1.92 cr, Raza's "Germination" went under the hammer for Rs 1.56 cr. Broota's "Reconstruction" fetched Rs 1.26 crore.
Among other highlights were a rare 1884 gouache by Raja Ravi Varma depicting Krishnaraja Wodeyar III's coronation and the Himalayan landscape captured by Nicholas Roerich, both National Art Treasures, fetching Rs 7,200,000 and Rs 8,160,000 respectively.
All nine lots of National Art Treasures (of Varma, Roerich, Abanindranath and Gaganendranath Tagore, Jamini Roy and Sailoz Mookherjea) sold.
Also 55 per cent of the Bengal Modern Masters such as Ganesh Pyne, Ganesh Haloi, Paritosh Sen, Bikash Bhattacharjee sold and 61 per cent of the Progressive Artists Group (Souza,Raza, K H Ara, M F Husain, H A Gade and and S K Bakre) found buyers at the auction.