A work by Subodh Gupta going under the hammer in New York at the Sotheby’s auction in support of KMOMA

At 10am on Tuesday in New York, about 100 works by the cream of contemporary Indian artists — both seniors and young blood — will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s in aid of the Rs 500-crore Kolkata Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art (KMOMA).

The museum, the first of its kind in eastern India, will come up on a 10-acre plot in Rajarhat already allotted for the purpose by the West Bengal government.

This upcoming event is being preceded by a week-long preview of the works of about 60 artists which began at Sotheby’s on July 9 — by all account a glittering cocktail party which had attracted art historians, heads of museums, big business, MOMA directors and scholars from Holyoke college in Boston.

Dadiba Pundole, of Mumbai’s Pundole Art Gallery and consultant to Sotheby’s, said over the phone from New York that though the preview was “going strong” it was “still too early to tell” the funds the auction will generate.

The paintings, sculptures and photographs by the likes of Tyeb Mehta, Somnath Hore, Ram Kumar, Jogen Chowdhury, Ganesh Pyne, Rameswar Broota, Arpita Singh, K.G. Subramnayan, Badri Narayan and those of the younger generation such as Subodh Gupta, Chintan Upadhyay, Baiju Parthan, T.V. Santosh, Riyas Komu and Dayanita Singh among others, are being offered in 95 lots. A little disconcertingly perhaps, the name of the man who singlehandedly brought contemporary Indian to the limelight — namely M.F. Husain — is missing from the list of participants.

KMOMA trustee Jogen Chowdhury, who preferred to stay on here like most of the artists whose works are being auctioned, said he expected the auction to rake in Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore. This was meant for initial expenses such as getting in touch with an architect of international standing. “Our ambition is that the design of the museum should be of international standards,” said Chowdhury.

Before KMOMA went international, funds were raised for the first time in Calcutta. On a wet August 27 last year, an auction was held at Grand hotel and although a meagre crore was collected, it ushered in a joint-sector project, the first of its kind, involving the state government, the Centre, Calcutta Municipal Corporation, corporate sector and foreign governments and their subsidiaries like the British Council and Max Mueller Bhavan.

Rakhi Sarkar, managing trustee, KMOMA, who has been travelling across the continents on behalf of this project, sounded upbeat over the phone from New York.

“The response has been great. People liked the art. People were very supportive and were willing to help. Sotheby’s had done a good display. The reception was elegantly organised,” she said.