Christie's is here again; eyes Rs 100 cr from India auction

World's largest arts auction house Christie's is expecting to collect about Rs 100 crore from its third consecutive contemporary India art sale which will be held here on December 15.

A total of 100 art works, including one by legendary artist Syed Haider Raza, will go under the hammer on that day.

Also, proceeds from the sale of half a dozen additional works will be donated for Tamil Nadu flood victims.

"We are expecting to collect somewhere between Rs 55 crore to Rs 70 crore from the forthcoming auction here," Romain Pingannaud, Christie's Director and Head of Department, Islamic and Indian Art, said here today.

"However, based on our experience from the last two auctions in India, I can only say that real sales have always surpassed our expectations and hence no wonder if we are able to collect around Rs 100 crore from the auction of the artworks this time too," she added.

While the collections from the first art sale by the UK firm in the country had crossed Rs 96 crore, it garnered over Rs 75 crore from the second one, a figure which surpassed expectations. For the first auction, Christie's had only expected to collect about Rs 57 crore.

The next week's auction will include a section dedicated to classical Indian art. A monumental painting by Syed Haider Raza titled 'Bindu' from 1983 will be one of the highlights of its modern and contemporary art collection, a company statement said.

The third edition commemorates the 20th anniversary of Christie's presence in India.

Following the devastating floods in Chennai and parts of Tamil Nadu, Christie's will offer an additional six works of contemporary art, donated by a group of leading artists andgalleries, and proceeds from their sale will go towards relieffor victims of the natural disaster, it said.

At the 2014 auction, Christie's could sell 97 per cent of the works on display.

Christie's, the only global art auction house to hold regular sales in India, holds the world auction records for works by F N Souza, Vasudeo S Gaitonde, Tyeb Mehta, Raza, MF Hussain and many other artists.

The auction also includes modern masterpieces by Ram Kumar, Nasreen Mohamedi, Manjit Bawa, Nandalal Bose, Abanindranth Tagore and Gaganendranath Tagore, among others.

The March auction of Indian antiquities named the 'Robert Hatfield Ellsworth Collection' in New York realised USD 134 million, which to date is the most valuable private collection of Asian art to be offered, Christie's said.