Art gallery gets nod to auction Hussain paintings

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has acceded to a proposal by an art gallery in south Mumbai to auction the paintings of late artist M.F. Hussain owned by Swarup Group of Industries. The court has further said that the deputy sheriff who was in possession of the 25 paintings would only monitor the auction.

In an earlier order in an arbitration petition filed by the National Agricultural Co-op Marketing Federation (NAFED) for recovery of Rs 104 crore from Swarup, the court directed the deputy sheriff to move the paintings from a suburban bank locker to a fine art warehouse and then conduct the auction. However, after an art connoisseur and expert suggested that the paintings could be made available for auction from their current location in the bank locker itself, the court changed its decision.

The Asian Age had reported on April 30 that justice G.S. Patel took cognisance of the concerns expressed by NAFED that the paintings stored in a bank locker at Andheri could be damaged due to lack of proper storage facilities. He then ordered for the paintings worth Rs 25 crore to be shifted. Following the order, Dadiba Pundole, owner of Pundole Art Gallery, Fort, informed that the artworks in question were painted by Hussain in 2004 at their gallery, and proposed that they could hold a special auction for them at their gallery. Mr Pundole became aware of the paintings after the gallery was roped in by the deputy sheriff for ascertaining their value. Mr Pundole also informed the court that the paintings were presently stored in PVC pipes and needed to be unfolded and flattened by restorers and experts before the auction the gallery was willing to undertake.

After hearing the proposal, justice Patel said, “The proposal involves cataloguing the paintings and drawing sufficient interest in the auction with various publicity strategies to attract the highest offers over reasonable reserve bids.