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Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Hindustan Times
MF Husain's 25 rare paintings worth ₹25 crore set for auction in Mumbai after HC Bombay ruling
Twenty-five rare paintings by renowned Indian artist MF Husain will reportedly be auctioned on June 12 following permission from the Bombay high court. The artworks are part of MF Husain's 'Our Planet Called Earth' series and are titled under the auction theme 'MF Husain: An Artist's Vision of the XX Century.' according to news agency PTI. The auction will be held at Hamilton House in south Mumbai. These paintings were secured by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) as part of a case involving an unpaid loan of ₹236 crore by industrialist Guru Swarup Srivastava's Swarup Group of Industries. In 2007, Srivastava had gained attention when he commissioned 100 paintings from Husain, agreeing to pay ₹1 crore for each. The Bombay High Court, in an order dated February 17, allowed the Sheriff of Mumbai to carry out the auction. The Sheriff issued the auction notice in February through Pundole art gallery. Last year, art expert Dadiba Pundole submitted a valuation report to the court, estimating the paintings to be worth ₹25 crore. After the auction, the Sheriff must report back to the High Court by July 3 and await further instructions on what to do with the proceeds. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) began looking into the Swarup Group in 2006 for alleged misuse of ₹150 crore from the total ₹236 crore loan taken from NAFED. A tribunal in 2008 had allowed NAFED to secure assets worth ₹100 crore, including the Husain artworks. (With PTI inputs)
The Hindu
2 days ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Twenty-five rare M.F. Husain paintings to be auctioned after Bombay HC nod
25 rare paintings of late Indian modernist painter M.F. Husain, secured by NAFED as part of the proceeds of an alleged loan default case, will be auctioned on June 12 pursuant to a nod from the Bombay High Court. The auction titled, 'M.F. Husain: An Artist's Vision of the XX Century', includes 25 canvases painted as part of Mr. Husain's Our Planet Called Earth (OPCE) series. In its February 17 order, a single Bench of Justice R.I. Chagla permitted the Sheriff of Mumbai to auction the 25 paintings, secured by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) in connection with the ₹236 crore loan dispute with industrialist Guru Swarup Srivastava's Swarup Group of Industries. Mr. Srivastava came into limelight in 2007 when he commissioned 100 paintings of Mr. Husain at ₹1 crore each. In May last year, art specialist Dadiba Pundole submitted to the High Court the valuation report of the paintings, as per which they were valued at ₹25 crore. Pursuant to the High Court order, the Sheriff of Mumbai in February issued an auction notice for the paintings through Pundole Art Gallery. The auction is scheduled on June 12 at the Hamilton House in south Mumbai. After the auction is complete, the Sheriff of Mumbai has been directed to file a report to the High Court by July 3 and obtain final directions for handover of the works. In 2006, the CBI initiated a probe into the Swarup Group and against Mr. Srivastava for alleged misappropriation of ₹150 crore from the ₹236 crore loans from NAFED. A tribunal in December 2008 permitted NAFED to secure assets of ₹100 crore, including the Husain paintings.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
25 rare M F Husain paintings to go under hammer after Bombay High Court nod
Twenty five rare paintings of late Indian modernist painter M F Husain, secured by NAFED as part of the proceeds of an alleged loan default case, will be auctioned on June 12 pursuant to a nod from the Bombay High Court . The auction titled, 'M F Husain: An Artist's Vision of the XX Century', includes 25 canvases painted as part of Husain's OPCE - Our Planet Called Earth - series. In its February 17 order, a single bench of Justice R I Chagla permitted the Sheriff of Mumbai to auction the 25 paintings, secured by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) in connection with the Rs 236 crore loan dispute with industrialist Guru Swarup Srivastava's Swarup Group of Industries. Srivastava came into limelight in 2007 when he commissioned 100 paintings of M F Husain at Rs 1 crore each. In May last year, art specialist Dadiba Pundole submitted to the HC the valuation report of the paintings, as per which they were valued at Rs 25 crore. Live Events Pursuant to the HC order, the Sheriff of Mumbai in February issued an auction notice for the paintings through Pundole art gallery. The auction is scheduled on June 12 at the Hamilton House in south Mumbai. After the auction is complete, the Sheriff of Mumbai has been directed to file a report to the high court by July 3 and obtain final directions for handover of the works. In 2006, the CBI initiated a probe into the Swarup Group and against Srivastava for alleged misappropriation of Rs 150 crore from the Rs 236 crore loans from NAFED. A tribunal in December 2008 permitted NAFED to secure assets of Rs 100 crore, including the Husain paintings.
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Seized, in bank vaults for years, 25 rare Husain works to be auctioned
Dadiba Pundole of the Mumbai-based Pundole Art Gallery vividly recalls the winter of 2003, when artist M F Husain spent weeks at their space, immersed in creating what he described as a series that would capture the essence of the 20th century as he had experienced it. 'He was extremely excited and charged. It sounded ambitious and I wondered how he would paint an entire century, but at that stage, I had no indication of the extent of this project,' says Pundole. He recalls the artist spreading two rolls of canvas on two large walls at the gallery and getting to work with acrylic paints, water, brushes, cotton rags and charcoal. Over two decades on, the works are among the 25 Husain canvases that have been taken out of the vaults of a private bank in Mumbai, where they were kept as part of the proceeds of an alleged loan default case, and will be auctioned. The June 12 auction, titled 'MF Husain: An Artist's Vision of the XX Century', will be held by Pundole's auction house at their space in Hamilton House in Mumbai. It will be the first time since Husain painted them — initially at Pundole's gallery and later at a friend's apartment in Dubai — that the artworks will be shown in India. The 25 paintings are part of a series of 100 that the artist had planned under the acronym 'OPCE' (Our Planet Called Earth). The sale comes months after Husain's Untitled (Gram Yatra) fetched $13.8 million (approximately Rs 118 crore) at a Christie's auction in New York, setting a new record for the most expensive Indian artwork to be sold in an auction. A deal and a court case In 2004, Husain sold the 25 works to Swarup Srivastava, a Mumbai-based art collector and chairman of the Swarup Group of Industries. The transaction marked the first instalment of a larger agreement in which Srivastava was to acquire 100 paintings worth Rs 100 crore from the artist. But two years later, in 2006, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) launched a probe against Srivastava (and others connected to the Swarup Group) for taking a Rs 235-crore loan from the National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation (NAFED), ostensibly to import iron ore, and then allegedly diverting around Rs 150 crore to invest in real estate and other personal expenses. As the legal proceedings progressed, a tribunal in December 2008 allowed NAFED to secure movable and immovable assets of Swarup Group worth Rs 104.25 crore, including the 25 Husain paintings. Over the years, while a part of the loan was repaid, according to sources at NAFED, the outstanding default, with interest, stands at over Rs 500 crore at present. As the arbitration case reached the Bombay High Court, it asked Pundole's gallery to create a valuation report of the artworks. The case proceedings show that on May 2, 2024, Dadiba Pundole submitted a report valuing the 25 paintings at Rs 25 crore. In February this year, the court ordered an auction of the 25 works, to be conducted by Pundole. On May 17, the Swarup Group offered to buy back the paintings at Rs 25 crore, but the court found merit in NAFED's submission that the sale of the paintings by public auction would fetch the highest price, and said Srivastava could participate in the auction. When contacted, Deepak Agarwal, Managing Director of NAFED, told The Indian Express: 'We would rather have the defaulters come and settle their dues with us. The board had passed an OTS (one-time settlement) policy earlier, and they can approach us under that.' The Indian Express reached out to Srivastava, but he refused to comment saying the matter was still sub-judice. The little-known Husains In the run-up to the auction, the paintings, so far seen only by a select few, have been taken out of the bank's vaults and will be displayed as part of a preview from June 8 to 11 at Hamilton House. Soon after their completion in 2004, the paintings were briefly exhibited — first at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai, and later at the Pierre Cardin Centre in Paris — before being sold to Srivastava. The auction catalogue gives a hint of the brush strokes that Husain attempted through these paintings. Cultural theorist and curator Ranjit Hoskote is quoted in the catalogue as saying, 'In these paintings, Husain invokes World War I and World War II, extols the triumphs of aviation, presents nature as the counterpoint to settlement, sings a paean to the race for space, delights in the cinema, and dwells on many memorable leitmotifs of the 20th century, arguably the most globalised and densely event-packed phase in our planet's recorded history. Conceptually, the OPCE series is strongly aligned with Husain's impulse, in his late years, to produce anthological series.' The varied subjects include Husain's trademark horses, paintings featuring American actor Humphrey Bogart, actor-filmmaker Charlie Chaplin, legendary mime artist Marcel Marceau, and a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi. 'It's always exciting when largely unseen works by Husain surface in the market,' says R N Singh, founder of the Dubai-based Progressive Art Gallery who has seen prints of some of these works. 'They represent a phase in which Husain was experimenting with different ideas,' he adds. Husain, who went into self-imposed exile in Doha in 2006, died in London in June 2011. He never completed the 100 paintings he set out to do. 'Had we seen all 100, we would have had a better idea of what he thought of that century, but they were never made. I think the project stopped here,' says Pundole. –With inputs from Omkar Gokhale, Mumbai
Time of India
3 days ago
- Climate
- Time of India
Counting losses due to delay in onion procurement by government: Maharashtra farmers
Onion farmers in Maharashtra have accused the government-appointed nodal agencies of delaying crop procurement, claiming that it caused huge losses after unseasonal rains hit the state in May. The "failure" to buy onions on time under the Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) mechanism meant the produce that could have been stored and sold was instead left exposed to adverse weather, leading to spoilage and financial distress, they said. Under the PSF, nodal agencies like the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India ( NAFED ) and National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India ( NCCF ) are tasked with stabilising prices and protecting farmers' interests by procuring onions and other notified commodities. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Where Sheikh Hamdan Dines in Dubai savoirflair Learn More Undo State government sources confirmed that the procurement process this year did not commence as scheduled, leaving farmers without institutional support. "NAFED and NCCF were supposed to procure 10 per cent of the scheduled quantity in April and 45 per cent in May. Had they followed this timeline, about 1.65 lakh tonnes of onions would have been procured and safely stored," said Bharat Dighole, president of the Maharashtra State Onion Producers' Association. Live Events "Instead, the delay meant farmers had to keep onions in makeshift storage, many without proper facilities. The rains came, and the crop was lost," he claimed. According to preliminary estimates from the state revenue department, over 3,000 hectares of onion cultivation got damaged due to unseasonal showers between May 5 and 21. With an average productivity of 400 quintals per hectare, the loss might run into thousands of tonnes. Farmers say the procurement agencies' "inaction" forced them to gamble on short-term solutions. "We covered our onions with plastic sheets, thinking the showers would last a few days," said Sanjay Sathe, a farmer from Niphad in Nashik district. However, the rains didn't stop, and the covered onions began to rot due to excessive moisture, he said. "Those who had taken their produce to the Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) lost their entire stock as the onions had been kept in open areas," said Sathe. A lot of stock would have gone to warehouses had NAFED and NCCF begun procurement on time, and farmers would have at least recovered some money, he said. "But the delay ruined everything," added the onion grower. Heavy rains lashed several parts of the state in May this year, which also saw the early arrival of monsoon. Farmers have also claimed that "malpractices" and inadequate infrastructure have marred Maharashtra's onion procurement efforts. In the current year, NAFED aimed to procure 1.5 lakh tonnes of onions from the state for buffer stock. In 2024-25, the agency had procured 1.75 lakh tonnes from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh combined, while NCCF secured 2.5 lakh tonnes, against its target of 5 lakh tonnes, Doghole claimed. Though onions arrive in the market both before and after the monsoon, only the pre-monsoon crop is procured by government agencies due to its low moisture content. The post-monsoon harvest, which has a high water content, is sold directly in the market. NAFED last year had filed cases against six Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) in Maharashtra for allegedly creating fake procurement records, which appears to have slowed down procurement operations this year, said farmers. "We have blacklisted six federations that failed to deliver onions as required," a NAFED official had said in February this year. Farmers and activists have claimed that the procurement process is opaque and often favours intermediaries. FPCs and traders often pose as genuine sellers and divert stocks to the open market at a profit, they said. "The system needs to be more transparent. The government talks about helping farmers, but we see the same problems every year," said Dighole. The lack of scientific storage facilities is another major problem. A 2023 Agriculture Ministry report acknowledged the problem, noting that "the storage of onion is challenging as the majority of the stock is stored in open ventilated structures". According to farmers, a ban on onion exports and a 40 per cent duty, which lasted through 2023-24, continued to depress prices and production incentives into 2025. Though the export restrictions were lifted in April 2024, their impact lingers, they said. "We were already struggling because of the export ban," said Hari Gaikwad, a farmer from Pimpalgaon in Nashik district. "Now, the government fails to buy our produce in time. It's the farmer who suffers every time. We are the ones who got hit both times," he said. The system must be "fixed", Dighole said. "If procurement agencies cannot function as intended, they are failing the very people they are meant to serve," he said.
