Sayed Haider Raza

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Raza work fetches record Rs 16.3cr

Neelam Raaj

Art Art, modern Indian Raza Syed Haider Raza

It’s proving to be quite a scorching summer for Indian art. Syed Haider Raza became India’s priciest modern artist on Thursday when a work by the 88-year-old was bought for Rs 16.3 crore ($3.49 million) at a Christie’s auction in London by a private Indian museum. Just two summers back, a work by Francis Newton Souza had set the record for the most expensive piece of modern art, fetching $2.5 million (Rs 10.5 crore). Since then, prices of Indian art had crashed though the fall in contemporary art was more drastic than the moderns.

Aptly, it’s the country’s two best-known masters who are making the meltdown seem like a distant memory. ‘‘Strength is coming back to the art market. We are also seeing a lot of new bidders across the world from Hong Kong, the UAE and the US,’’ said Yamini Mehta, director of the contemporary Indian art department at Christie’s.

A day earlier, the London-based auction house put over 500 works by Souza under the hammer. They fetched $7.9 million, more than double the pre-sale estimate. Ninetyseven per cent of the Souza lots found buyers, with a top price of $1.3 million for the 1962 oil, ‘Red Curse’, painted on black satin while the artist was living in London.

The price for Raza’s work, ‘Saurashtra’, wasn’t out of the blue. Raza considers it to be one of his 10 most important works. Known for his bindu art, Raza was a founder member of the Bombay Progressive Artist’s group along with Souza. He first came to prominence in Paris where he moved in 1950. Painted in 1983, ‘Saurashtra’ belongs to a key period in Raza’s career when he began to integrate vital elements of his childhood and heritage into his paintings.

Grand Masters & Landmarks S H Raza | Saurashtra (left) sold for $3.49m on June 10, 2010 S H Raza | La Terre sold for $2.54m on June 30, 2008 F N Souza | Birth sold for $2.48m on June 11, 2008