INDIAN PAINTINGS ACHIEVE RECORD PRICES AT AUCTION
(4 May 2005)

Bonhams' Bond Street saleroom was the scene of much excitement last week (28.4.05) as art buyers snapped up modern and contemporary Indian, Pakistani and Arab paintings in a sale that made a total of £1.7m. A world record price - £145,600 (with premium) - was achieved for Lot 328, The Tree, the Bird, the Shadow, by Jagdish Swaminathan (India 1928-1993) against a pre-auction estimate of £40,000 to £60,000. It is believed to be the second highest price achieved by a modern Indian artist.

The sale reinforces the mood of Bonhams' Indian and Islamic auction last October which made record prices for a number of artists, boosting confidence in this market segment significantly. Suddenly art from the sub continent and the Middle East is hot property.

Equally encouraging was the fact that more traditional Islamic art also did well says Claire Penhallurick, Head of Indian and Islamic Art at Bonhams. "But what really created the buzz was the modern paintings. It is as if a whole new generation of artists and a new western influenced art is at last beginning to find a proper market worldwide. Buyers for these paintings were a mix of home buyers and western buyers."

Lot 310 Horses and Nudes by Maqbol Fid Hussain (born India 1915) made £89,600, another good result against an estimate of £50,000 to £70,000. The third most valuable sale was for Lot 317 - Red Portrait by Francis Newton Souza which was estimated to sell for £25,000 to £35,000 and on the day achieved £74,400.

The works of some of the best-known Indian artists, including Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002) for example, went unrecognised for many years in the homes of owners of his paintings. This is now changing rapidly as his work is reappraised following his death in 2002. Now work that used to sell for hundreds of pounds a painting commands prices at least five times that figure. Other Indian Modernists are also enjoying the effect of this new collecting interest. But collectors are looking for rare works fresh to the market, not the paintings which have been around for some time.