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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 .
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How India's 'biggest art deal' buried MF Husain masterpieces in a bank vault
Nearly two dozen paintings by one of the world's most celebrated modern artists - once part of a record-breaking art deal - are set to hit the auction block for the first time next week. On 12 June, 25 rare MF Husain paintings will go under the hammer at an art gallery in Mumbai city, more than two decades after he painted them. This will be the first public glimpse of the paintings, locked away in bank vaults since 2008 after authorities seized them from a prominent businessman over an alleged loan default. "It's like the paintings have come full circle," says Dadiba Pundole, director of Pundole Art Gallery, where the auction is set to be held. Husain used the gallery as his studio for many of these works, part of an ambitious 100-painting series he never finished. Often called the "Picasso of India," he was one of the country's most celebrated - and controversial - artists. His works have fetched millions, but his bold themes often drew criticism. He died in 2011, aged 95. Titled MF Husain: An Artist's Vision of the XX Century, the 25 paintings at Pundole'a gallery offer a glimpse into his take on a transformative century shaped by leaps in technology, politics, and culture. Pundole has estimated that the auction could fetch up to $29m (£21m). This comes months after another Husain painting, Untitled (Gram Yatra), sold for an unprecedented $13.8m at a Christie's auction in New York, becoming the most expensive Indian artwork to be auctioned. The oil-on-canvas masterpiece had adorned the walls of a Norwegian hospital for almost five decades, forgotten by the art world, until the auction house was alerted about its presence in 2013. The latest paintings to be auctioned seem to follow a similar trajectory. Husain began working on them in the early 2000s, with great excitement and vigour, recalls Pundole. "When he was painting, nothing could disturb him. It didn't matter what was happening around him," he adds. In 2004, Husain sold 25 paintings to a Mumbai businessman as the first instalment of a billion-rupee deal. Kishore Singh, author of MF Husain: The Journey of a Legend, wrote about this agreement in the Indian Express newspaper. "He [Husain] wasn't jealous of fellow artists, but he was competitive," Singh writes, noting that Husain struck the deal soon after Tyeb Mehta's Kali [an Indian goddess] set a new record for India's most expensive painting in 2002, selling for 15 million rupees. Husain struck a billion rupees deal with businessman Guru Swarup Srivastava for this series of paintings. Media dubbed it "India's biggest art deal," catapulting the little-known Srivastava into overnight fame as a celebrity collector. But two years later, India's top crime agency, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), began investigating Srivastava's business, alleging he and associates had misused a loan from a government-backed agricultural body. The CBI alleged Srivastava diverted the funds into real estate, mutual funds, and Husain paintings. He and his company deny all charges; the case remains in court. In 2008, a tribunal allowed the government-backed agricultural body to seize one billion rupees in assets from Srivastava, including the 25 Husain paintings. In February this year, a court cleared the way for the paintings to be auctioned to recover part of the loan. And so, after years locked away in bank vaults, the 25 paintings are finally stepping into the spotlight. In a 2018 interview to author and journalist Tara Kaushal, Srivastava spoke about his stalled deal with the artist. "I had planned to pay Husain for the rest of the paintings by selling the first 25. But legal complications meant that, when Husain called me in 2008 saying the paintings were ready in London and Paris, and to pick them up at the agreed price, my funds were not ready. He understood," he said. Asked why Husain had chosen to sell his paintings to a person who almost nobody knew in India's elite art circles, Pundole says, "He didn't care. As long as his paintings were sold." There's no way to know how Husain felt about the failed deal or his unfinished 20th Century series - but the episode remains a striking footnote in his bold, eventful career. The 25 paintings in this series, vibrant acrylics on canvas, showcase Husain's bold style while reflecting key 20th-century events and social attitudes. One painting shows an unlikely group chatting on a bench, symbolising Husain's call for peaceful dialogue and coexistence among global powers. Another painting honours Charlie Chaplin while juxtaposing a rocket launch to highlight the contrast between social and economic disparities and massive state spending. Other paintings depict a world battling poverty, soldiers in trenches, and humanity confronting tragedies like World War Two, the Partition, and the Holocaust.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How India's 'biggest art deal' buried MF Husain masterpieces in a bank vault
Nearly two dozen paintings by one of the world's most celebrated modern artists - once part of a record-breaking art deal - are set to hit the auction block for the first time next week. On 12 June, 25 rare MF Husain paintings will go under the hammer at an art gallery in Mumbai city, more than two decades after he painted them. This will be the first public glimpse of the paintings, locked away in bank vaults since 2008 after authorities seized them from a prominent businessman over an alleged loan default. "It's like the paintings have come full circle," says Dadiba Pundole, director of Pundole Art Gallery, where the auction is set to be held. Husain used the gallery as his studio for many of these works, part of an ambitious 100-painting series he never finished. Often called the "Picasso of India," he was one of the country's most celebrated - and controversial - artists. His works have fetched millions, but his bold themes often drew criticism. He died in 2011, aged 95. Titled MF Husain: An Artist's Vision of the XX Century, the 25 paintings at Pundole'a gallery offer a glimpse into his take on a transformative century shaped by leaps in technology, politics, and culture. Pundole has estimated that the auction could fetch up to $29m (£21m). This comes months after another Husain painting, Untitled (Gram Yatra), sold for an unprecedented $13.8m at a Christie's auction in New York, becoming the most expensive Indian artwork to be auctioned. The oil-on-canvas masterpiece had adorned the walls of a Norwegian hospital for almost five decades, forgotten by the art world, until the auction house was alerted about its presence in 2013. The latest paintings to be auctioned seem to follow a similar trajectory. Husain began working on them in the early 2000s, with great excitement and vigour, recalls Pundole. "When he was painting, nothing could disturb him. It didn't matter what was happening around him," he adds. In 2004, Husain sold 25 paintings to a Mumbai businessman as the first instalment of a billion-rupee deal. Kishore Singh, author of MF Husain: The Journey of a Legend, wrote about this agreement in the Indian Express newspaper. "He [Husain] wasn't jealous of fellow artists, but he was competitive," Singh writes, noting that Husain struck the deal soon after Tyeb Mehta's Kali [an Indian goddess] set a new record for India's most expensive painting in 2002, selling for 15 million rupees. Husain struck a billion rupees deal with businessman Guru Swarup Srivastava for this series of paintings. Media dubbed it "India's biggest art deal," catapulting the little-known Srivastava into overnight fame as a celebrity collector. But two years later, India's top crime agency, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), began investigating Srivastava's business, alleging he and associates had misused a loan from a government-backed agricultural body. The CBI alleged Srivastava diverted the funds into real estate, mutual funds, and Husain paintings. He and his company deny all charges; the case remains in court. In 2008, a tribunal allowed the government-backed agricultural body to seize one billion rupees in assets from Srivastava, including the 25 Husain paintings. In February this year, a court cleared the way for the paintings to be auctioned to recover part of the loan. And so, after years locked away in bank vaults, the 25 paintings are finally stepping into the spotlight. In a 2018 interview to author and journalist Tara Kaushal, Srivastava spoke about his stalled deal with the artist. "I had planned to pay Husain for the rest of the paintings by selling the first 25. But legal complications meant that, when Husain called me in 2008 saying the paintings were ready in London and Paris, and to pick them up at the agreed price, my funds were not ready. He understood," he said. Asked why Husain had chosen to sell his paintings to a person who almost nobody knew in India's elite art circles, Pundole says, "He didn't care. As long as his paintings were sold." There's no way to know how Husain felt about the failed deal or his unfinished 20th Century series - but the episode remains a striking footnote in his bold, eventful career. The 25 paintings in this series, vibrant acrylics on canvas, showcase Husain's bold style while reflecting key 20th-century events and social attitudes. One painting shows an unlikely group chatting on a bench, symbolising Husain's call for peaceful dialogue and coexistence among global powers. Another painting honours Charlie Chaplin while juxtaposing a rocket launch to highlight the contrast between social and economic disparities and massive state spending. Other paintings depict a world battling poverty, soldiers in trenches, and humanity confronting tragedies like World War Two, the Partition, and the Holocaust.
BBC News
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
MF Husain: How India's 'biggest art deal' buried masterpieces in a bank vault
Nearly two dozen paintings by one of the world's most celebrated modern artists - once part of a record-breaking art deal - are set to hit the auction block for the first time next 12 June, 25 rare MF Husain paintings will go under the hammer at an art gallery in Mumbai city, more than two decades after he painted them. This will be the first public glimpse of the paintings, locked away in bank vaults since 2008 after authorities seized them from a prominent businessman over an alleged loan default."It's like the paintings have come full circle," says Dadiba Pundole, director of Pundole Art Gallery, where the auction is set to be used the gallery as his studio for many of these works, part of an ambitious 100-painting series he never finished. Often called the "Picasso of India," he was one of the country's most celebrated - and controversial - artists. His works have fetched millions, but his bold themes often drew criticism. He died in 2011, aged MF Husain: An Artist's Vision of the XX Century, the 25 paintings at Pundole'a gallery offer a glimpse into his take on a transformative century shaped by leaps in technology, politics, and culture. Pundole has estimated that the auction could fetch up to $29m (£21m).This comes months after another Husain painting, Untitled (Gram Yatra), sold for an unprecedented $13.8m at a Christie's auction in New York, becoming the most expensive Indian artwork to be oil-on-canvas masterpiece had adorned the walls of a Norwegian hospital for almost five decades, forgotten by the art world, until the auction house was alerted about its presence in 2013. The latest paintings to be auctioned seem to follow a similar began working on them in the early 2000s, with great excitement and vigour, recalls Pundole."When he was painting, nothing could disturb him. It didn't matter what was happening around him," he 2004, Husain sold 25 paintings to a Mumbai businessman as the first instalment of a billion-rupee Singh, author of MF Husain: The Journey of a Legend, wrote about this agreement in the Indian Express newspaper."He [Husain] wasn't jealous of fellow artists, but he was competitive," Singh writes, noting that Husain struck the deal soon after Tyeb Mehta's Kali [an Indian goddess] set a new record for India's most expensive painting in 2002, selling for 15 million struck a billion rupees deal with businessman Guru Swarup Srivastava for this series of paintings. Media dubbed it "India's biggest art deal," catapulting the little-known Srivastava into overnight fame as a celebrity two years later, India's top crime agency, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), began investigating Srivastava's business, alleging he and associates had misused a loan from a government-backed agricultural CBI alleged Srivastava diverted the funds into real estate, mutual funds, and Husain paintings. He and his company deny all charges; the case remains in 2008, a tribunal allowed the government-backed agricultural body to seize one billion rupees in assets from Srivastava, including the 25 Husain February this year, a court cleared the way for the paintings to be auctioned to recover part of the loan. And so, after years locked away in bank vaults, the 25 paintings are finally stepping into the spotlight. In a 2018 interview to author and journalist Tara Kaushal, Srivastava spoke about his stalled deal with the artist."I had planned to pay Husain for the rest of the paintings by selling the first 25. But legal complications meant that, when Husain called me in 2008 saying the paintings were ready in London and Paris, and to pick them up at the agreed price, my funds were not ready. He understood," he why Husain had chosen to sell his paintings to a person who almost nobody knew in India's elite art circles, Pundole says, "He didn't care. As long as his paintings were sold."There's no way to know how Husain felt about the failed deal or his unfinished 20th Century series - but the episode remains a striking footnote in his bold, eventful career. The 25 paintings in this series, vibrant acrylics on canvas, showcase Husain's bold style while reflecting key 20th-century events and social attitudes. One painting shows an unlikely group chatting on a bench, symbolising Husain's call for peaceful dialogue and coexistence among global painting honours Charlie Chaplin while juxtaposing a rocket launch to highlight the contrast between social and economic disparities and massive state paintings depict a world battling poverty, soldiers in trenches, and humanity confronting tragedies like World War Two, the Partition, and the Holocaust.
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
