Art market, auctions: India
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Obscenity and exports
2024: Souza and Padamsee case
Rosy Sequeira, Oct 26, 2024: The Times of India
Mumbai : The Bombay HC directed Customs department to release the seven confiscated artworks of Francis Newton Souza and Akbar Padamsee to the importer. The artworks were confiscated on grounds that they were “obscene.”
“Every nude painting or every painting depicting some sexual intercourse poses cannot be styled as obscene,” said Justices Mahesh Sonak and Jitendra Jain. They allowed the petition by B K Polimex India, through its director, and quashed and set aside the July1 order of assistant commissioner of Customs (ACC), courier cell, Airport Special Cargo Commissionerate, confiscating the seven nude drawings.
“The reasoning in the impugned order is quite perverse. Therefore, judged by the law laid down by SC and other HCs in such matters, we are satisfied that the impugned order is unsustainable...’’ they added. In June and Oct 2022, three works of Padamsee and four of Souza, titled ‘Lovers’, were purchased from auction houses in London. After they reached Mumbai, in April, Customs seized them. On July 1, confiscation order was passed &a Rs 50,000 penalty imposed.
The judges said the matter could not have been decided by ACC repeatedly focusing on the fact that the artworks were of nudes, some portrayed sexual intercourse positions and were therefore necessarily obscene. They agreed with the petitioner’s advocate that ACC ignored relevant considerations like experts’ opinions and appeals, artistic value, contemporary community standards, and several legal precedents. “It is based mainly on irrelevant considerations like ACC’s individualised standards of morality and decency, his personal opinions and prejudices on the topic of obscenity...’’ they said. Also, the circumstance that similar artworks are available in the domestic market or displayed in prestigious art galleries nationally and internationally was ignored, HC said.
The court said that the ACC’s private views “however respectable or otherwise, cannot be seeping into official decision-making”.
YEAR-WISE PRICES
2005: Tyeb Mehta
See graphic, ‘Prices paid for Indian art in 2005’
2007: Raqib Shaw
See graphic, ‘Prices paid for Indian art in 2007’
2008: Souza, Gupta
See graphic, ‘Prices paid for Indian art in 2008’
2009: the top 5
See graphic, ‘Top 5 artists based on painting sales: 2009 ‘
2010, 2013: Gaitonde, Raza, Arpita, Kher
See graphic:
Prices paid for Indian art in 2010
2018: Tyeb Mehta, Sher-Gil
In a new record for celebrated artist Amrita Sher-Gil, her work ‘The Little Girl in Blue’— a 1934 portrait of her cousin, which her cousin’s mother had not liked—fetched Rs 18.7 crore at auction house Sotheby’s inaugural event in Mumbai. Previously, a Sher-Gil work had fetched Rs 18.2 crore.
While the Sher-Gil painting drew maximum interest, the other major draw was Tyeb Mehta’s masterpiece Durga Mahishasura Mardini, a rare painting depicting Goddess Durga defeating the Buffalo Demon. It earned the evening’s highest bid at Rs 20.5 crore. The record for a Tyeb Mehta yet is Rs 26.4 crore.
The landmark auction titled ‘Boundless: India’ marked Mumbai as Sotheby’s 10th sale location in the world and boasted an assortment of 60 precious lots priced between Rs 60,000 and Rs 20 crore.
