MF Husain’s Safdar Hashmi that fetched Rs 4.4 crore at the auction

Calcutta, Feb. 23: M.F. Husain today joined the million-dollar club when his canvas dedicated to murdered theatre activist Safdar Hashmi fetched Rs 4.4 crore at eastern India’s first art auction in the city.

Tyeb Mehta, too, attracted the same price at the EmamiChisel Art auction at Emami Tower on EM Bypass that drew bidders from across the country and abroad. Both canvases were picked up by the same unidentified floor bidder.

Two others who fetched over a crore were J. Swaminathan, whose canvas went for Rs 1 crore 76 lakh, and an F.N. Souza that was snapped up for Rs 1 crore 65 lakh.

Two Amrita Sher-Gil drawings went for Rs 21.85 lakh and Rs 14.95 lakh. A Bikash Bhattacharjee went for Rs 46 lakh, a Ram Kumar work for Rs 40.25 lakh, an early Manjit Bawa for Rs 57.5 lakh, a 1968 Rameshwar Broota for Rs 34.5 lakh and a Ganesh Pyne for Rs 63.25 lakh.

The buyers seemed to favour figurative work as abstract creations, including that of Prabhakar Kolte, didn’t fare very well. Neither Jogen Chowdhury’s drawings nor Paritosh Sen and Shuvaprasanna’s paintings found any takers.

The younger generation of Calcutta-based artists gave a good account of themselves, considering that this was the first time some of their works were going under the hammer.

Sekhar Roy’s large canvas sold for Rs 11.5 lakh, followed by Aditya Basak’s work that fetched Rs 10.35 lakh. Chandra Bhattacharjee’s canvas went for Rs 8.6 lakh and Chhatrapati Datta’s painting Rs 5.16 lakh.