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Time of India
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
In rare white glove sale at SoBo auction, MF's 25 artworks fetch over 68cr
1 2 Defying calls for a ban from right-wing groups earlier in the week and under tight police watch, 25 artworks by MF Husain fetched Rs 68.5 crore at a court-mandated auction in South Mumbai on Thursday that made for a rare white glove sale where every artwork found a buyer. A total of 25 paintings across 21 lots from Husain's 'Our Planet Called Earth (OPCE)' series went under the hammer. "Two of the lots were triptychs, each made up of three individual works," said auctioneer Dadiba Pundole. The evening's highest bid was Rs 9.5 crore for a dramatic triptych from the OPCE series, followed by Rs 8.5 crore for a Gandhi-themed canvas, both acquired by the same buyer. The auction, held at Pundole Art Gallery in Hamilton House in Ballard Estate and overseen by the Bombay High Court through the office of the Bombay Sheriff, went ahead smoothly. Just days earlier, the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti had submitted a memorandum demanding a ban on the sale, warning of "strong public protest" if it proceeded. The protest was eventually called off. "The auction proceeded without a hitch. I think the police did a fantastic job," said auctioneer and gallerist Dadiba Pundole. In 2004, then nearing 90, Husain set out to create 100 paintings that would, in his words, "document the century I have lived through." by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 今すぐ、2025年最高のRPGゲームを制覇しよう！ BuzzDaily Winners ゲームをプレイ Undo The result was the OPCE collection that reflected his fascination with global events and human achievement spanning the World Wars, space exploration, aviation, cinema, and the tension between nature and modernity. That same year, industrialist Guru Swarup Srivastava bought these paintings from Husain for Rs 25 crore, a record-breaking figure at the time. Only 25 were completed before the deal collapsed, following Srivastava's Rs 236 crore loan default that led to National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) securing the artworks in 2008. These artworks remained in legal limbo for over a decade before going under the hammer on Thursday. Painted in acrylic on expansive canvases, the OPCE works remain among Husain's most theatrical. The top-selling lot — a large untitled triptych painted in 2004 and exhibited in Paris and Dubai — depicts two seated figures resembling soldiers or explorers at one end, and a butler in a top hat offering a drink at the other. At the centre lies a reclining figure that evokes classical depictions of Christ in scenes of the Deposition. Art experts have called this one of the most enigmatic works in the OPCE series, with viewers left to speculate whether the figure is resting, unwell, or just theatrically posing. The second-highest sale of the evening was an acrylic-on-canvas white and grey toned portrait of Mahatma Gandhi, which went for Rs 8.5 crore where Gandhi's face is deliberately cast in shadow, with a white dove — symbol of peace — hovering near his head. The figure is rendered through familiar details such as the pleats of his dhoti, a pocket watch, his staff, and in the corner, a rural farmer with a plough. Both paintings had been stored rolled for years and were carefully conserved, cleaned, re-lined, and stretched, with minor restoration work ahead of the sale. The auction drew strong participation from in-room bidders, as well as online and phone buyers, including international interest. The proceeds will be deposited with the Mumbai Sheriff and subsequently handed over to the High Court. Husain, long regarded as one of India's most celebrated and controversial modernists, remains a polarising figure. His depictions of Hindu deities and Bharat Mata sparked legal battles and right-wing outrage, eventually pushing him into self-imposed exile. He died in London in 2011, a citizen of Qatar. But as Thursday's sale showed, even in his absence, Husain continues to provoke and to command the room. Follow more information on Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad here . Get real-time live updates on rescue operations and check full list of passengers onboard AI 171 .
Hindustan Times
13-06-2025
- Hindustan Times
Court-ordered auction of 21 Husain works fetches ₹68.5 crore
MUMBAI: Two large triptychs measuring 1.6m x 2.2m, a canvas depicting Mahatma Gandhi as an apostle of peace, and another showing a Humphrey Bogart-like figure standing under a street lamp, inspired by the Hollywood classic Casablanca, were among the 21 works of Maqbool Fida Husain that saw a white glove sale on June 12 following a court-ordered auction in Mumbai. The auction, conducted under heavy police presence, fetched a total of ₹68.5 crore, not including Buyer's premium and GST. The highest-selling works included a triptych that sold for ₹9.5 crore, and the Gandhi-figure canvas that fetched ₹8.5 crore, both of which were acquired by the same person, who was present in the room. The auction also saw sales made via online bids and by telephone callers. Police personnel in plain clothes and uniform discreetly paced the premises of auctioneer Pundole's during the sale, and installed barricades outside its South Mumbai office, after a right wing group demanded a 'ban' on the auction and warned of 'strong public protest' if their demands were not met. The protest, however, was called off, and the auction proceeded smoothly on Thursday. Earlier this year, the Bombay high court (HC) ordered the auction and directed the Bombay Sheriff to oversee the sale on the instance of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED). The federation secured these works in 2008 as part of a case involving an unpaid loan of ₹236 crore by industrialist Guru Swarup Srivastava's Swarup Group of Industries. Srivastava had bought these paintings from Husain for an eyebrow-raising sum of ₹25 crore in 2004. The news made a splash at the time, as Srivastava valued each canvas at ₹1 crore, far higher than what any canvas of Husain cost at the time. The collection titled Our Plant Called Earth or OPCE, depicted Husain's documentation of the 20th century through icons, symbolic figures and significant political events. Made using acrylic on long stretches of canvas that Husain later cut to individual works, they offer an important insight into the varied inspirations that shaped his global, cosmopolitan and culturally secular outlook. Husain also announced his plans to make a total of 100 such works, but abandoned the project eventually. The artist soon became the object of ire of right wing groups who protested against his depiction of Hindu gods and goddesses. He eventually left India and died in 2011 in self-exile. Last week, the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, which has protested against Husain's works before as well, submitted a memorandum to the office of the Maharashtra CM, Mumbai Police Commissioner and the District Collector, demanding a ban on the auction, and warned of a 'strong public protest' if their demands weren't met. 'The sale exceeded expectations,' said Dadiba Pundole, and added that the works were an important part of India's cultural history. The money will be deposited with the Mumbai Sheriff, who will then entrust the money to the HC, a court-appointed official, said.
Time of India
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Pundoles Ode to MF Husain this June
Critic and Curator Uma Nair has been writing for the past 35 years on art and culture She has written as critic for Times of India and Economic Times. She believes that art is a progressive sojourn. She learnt by looking at the best shows in Washington D.C. and New York. As author her most important books are Reverie with Raza and Meditations on Trees by Ompal Sansanwal. LESS ... MORE 21 Lots created in 2004, under the acronym OPCE ( Our Planet Called Earth ) go under the hammer at Pundoles on June 12th, 2025. These 21 works belonging to an original set of 100 works are Husain's paean to the earth on World Environment Day 2025. One of the most articulate as well as artistic voices in newly independent India, Maqbool Fida Husain 'has been unique in his ability to forge a pictorial language which is indisputably of the contemporary Indian situation but surcharged with all the energies, the rhythms of his art heritage'. This epic sale at Pundoles reflects the journey of Husain, between latitude and longitude, of how he was drawn to images that captured the true essence of Indian traditions as well as international lifestyle, whether it was in urban or rural settings. M F Husain's words of 1959 swing back : A cartload of leaking milk Lights up the lane And a boy begins to eat up the town With shoeless walks On empty steps We cruise through stirring 21 Lots and see that he frequently drew from his own childhood experiences and memories to create paintings that were grounded as well as legitimate. These works at auction reaffirm Husain's lasting international resonance, securing his place as one of the most influential modern artists of twentieth-century India. It was Ebrahim Alkazi who said that it was this melding of experiences and memories that made Husain paint ' with the same visceral truthfulness and sense of commitment as the woman grinding corn, the potter at his wheel and the same lack of pretension.' Still life with Carl Jung His still life study of a chair with 4 books in Lot 4 ,has a rifle, a vintage hunter's hat and a single boot as an ensemble to create a story of specifics. The hunter's hat and rifle add to the pain and pleasure of hunting. The books are a lexicon in satire and work is also a testimony to time, specially Carl Jung whose book lies under the chair while Karl Marx's Das Kapital , Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali and TS Eliot's Wasteland sit on the chair. Between these four texts we see a running commentary of the publishing dynamics that ruled the world in the 20th century. Masterfully rendered with Husain's confident contours and an evocative yet elegant palette it is the consonance of the visual and the verbal, the power of the human mind of great writers as well as T.S Eliot's poetry that bring back his words so many years hence: And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust. Antiquity and modern dancers Two works that translate the beauty of dance at Lot 5 & 6, are a treat for tired first one is a contemporary composition of a western dancer with a dove resting on his hand while a bottle of wine rests on his raised had watched Merce Cunnigham in New York and came back to discuss it at Vadehra Art Gallery in 2004. ' I watched him create surprise in an instant. A critic who sat next to me said that Cunnigham liberated dance from established practice as well as historic convention.' In a quaint way Husain too celebrated the infinite possibilities of human movement just like Cunnigham and this portrait bears this truth in all its moods as well as a sense of reverie. The second work has two once ethereal and earthy, Lot 6 has a pair of vertical feminine figures who are at once a blend of the ethereal as well as the sculptonic earthy symbolism. The ethereal is one takes a swirl as she is attuned to the contemporary choreography of a modern dancer while the second reminds us of little Ganesha in her hand is a reminder of the fact that Husain was well acquainted with rasa and he wanted to play between the contrasts of being in movement as well as anchored. In these two feminine forms created in subtle strokes we see how he tuned himself into the disciplines of several performing arts. For Husain , his paintings were pulsating visual narratives of the vibrations of dance, music and sculptural intensities presented in a thrust of jagged thrust lines and colours. The feminine form for Husain was an ' abbreviated rhythmic stroke of the universe.' These two figures are born of a distinctive visual language ,conveying a refined poetic sensibility and quiet elegance. Nataraja in tandava The image of a sculptural Nataraja Lot 7, in smooth, sleek lines is a dulcet image of soft, secular detailing. Let's not forget his knowledge of Indian mythology was deep. Most of his collectors too were staunch Hindus with deep faith. Myth for Husain was perhaps more than an umbilical attachment. Myth was born of the beauty of stories that rippled amidst the human figures that strode his canvases. This figure of the pared down minimalist Nataraja in Tandava is a celebration of a composite Indian culture in which the scale and scope is one that brings alive the unforgettable Lord of the dance. However it is the sand coloured , shaded image that catches our intrigue and we wonder at the many references that flow out of its graceful poise. Human hands and feet for Husain were more than mere limbs ,they were vehicles of power in the ultimate principle of human existence. Gandhi in monochrome Gandhi in monochrome at Lot 8, with a dove replacing his face, is a date with India's freedom struggle. The pocket watch, the dhoti, the many people following during the Dandi and the lone sickle wielding farmer all become a page of the past and the present. Gestures and grace weave into the firmament of politics and realities. In the paradoxes of life's acts and scenes he made an elegant and eloquent dissection of space, lines and kept reinventing figure and form with the strokes of prismatic precision. Ebrahim Alkazi elegantly encapsulated in his monograph on the artist, 'behind every stroke of the artist's brush is a vast hinterland of traditional concepts, forms, meanings. [Husain's] vision is never uniquely his own; it is a new perspective given to the collective experience of his race […] Husain's concept is intensely poetic: with a stroke of genius, the entire mythic world which has enriched the minds of the common people is brought vividly alive. Past and present, myth and reality are shown to exist simultaneously in the Indian imagination' (E. Alkazi, M. F. Husain: The Modern Artist & Tradition, New Delhi, 1978, p. 17). Humphrey Bogart leaning on a lamppost Husain was an artist with wings on his travels around the world sharpened his wit and humour. Humphrey Bogart at New York (Lot 2) leaning against a lamppost is both kinetic as well as cinematic. At once we recall the unforgettable Casablanca. Husain followed Indian as well as international traditions of dance and drama, music and cinema to create his own corollaries in conversation. Art born of tradition skewed into contemporary format became his catalyst. And Bogart was a symbol of the classics in cinematic history. In this painting he replays a scene, and the hound that nestles against the lamppost is a canine star. Strokes for Husain were lean and lithe. ' He can draw and paint with complete surrender to the sound and graphic representations of these modes. Musical rhythm or pure sound finds its way easily into the schemes of the paintings' (R. Shahani, Let History Cut Across Me without Me, New Delhi, 1993, p. 1). IMAGES: PUNDOLES Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
The Hindu
02-06-2025
- 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.
Indian Express
01-06-2025
- 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
