Tagore, Husain, Raza works to go under hammer

New Delhi, July 7 (PTI) Iconic works of Rabindranath
Tagore, M.F. Husain and S.H. Raza among others will go under
the hammer on July 15 at the Osian's art, books and cinema
memorabilia auction that is valued at nearly Rs 24 crore.

Besides rare art collections, the fourth A.B.C. series
of auctions aims at stimulate interest in Indian film
memorabilia as well as promote rare books. A preview of the
works to be up for the auction was inaugurated here last
night.

The art section also includes works of K.H. Ara, J.
Sultan Ali, Ganesh Pyne, Bikash Bhattacharjee among others.

There is a special focus on the Tagores and Bengal
School, and works of Rabindranath, Abanindranath and
Gaganendranath and their sister Sunayani Devi have been
included.

The "Section on Books" includes seminal rare works on
important modern masters such as Raja Ravi Varma, Nicolas
Roerich, the Tagores, Amrita Sher-Gil, Chughtai, Sadequai,
George Keyt, Husain and Souza among others.

Also included are limited edition portfolios on Omar
Khayyam painted by Abanindranath Tagore and Asit Kumar Haldar
and a book by M.V. Dhurandhar with Khayyam related sketches.

The "Cinema Section" includes vintage posters of some
of the 1930s films like 'Dreamland', 'Hurricane Special',
'Allaudin Aur Jadoo Ka Chirag' and 'Golden Gang'.

The R.K. Films banner will be in focus with publicity
memorabilia of films like 'Ab Dilli Dur Nahin', 'Awara',
'Shree 420', 'Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai' and 'Bobby' along
with a rare six-sheeted poster of 'Sangam'.

The A.B.C. Series Auction has become an important part
of the Indian auction calendar as it provides a rare insight
into many Indian contemporary art forms.

The film memorabilia market is now ready for a
significant boost as the film fraternity themselves become
collectors, respecting the film heritage while further
recognising how relatively small the Indian memorabilia
market is given the scale of the international market.

"A year or two from now, just as with the fine arts
markets, the vintage Indian popular arts will be chased by the
international collectors and museums in full earnest," said
Neville Tuli, chairman of Osian's Connoisseurs of Arts.

Tagore's 'Face' with pen and ink on paper has a lower
price estimate of Rs 1,600,000 (Approx USD 37,400) and an
upper estimate of Rs 2,000,000.

Of the various lots of Husain that are up for grabs is
a two-set "Fantacy Series" works in pencil, pen and ink on
brown paper done in 1941.

Other Husain works include 'Horses Series' (oil on
board, Rs 3,600,000-Rs 4,500,000), 'Horses' (watercolour and
ink on paper, Rs 1,000,000-Rs 1,250,000) and 'Krishna' (oil
on canvas signed in Devanagiri and English, Rs 8,000,000-Rs
10,000,000).

Artist of Focus Ram Kumar's 'Sisters' is an oil work
done in 1967.

"I cannot say whether 'Sisters' is my best work. For
an artist, every work of his is precious," Kumar told P.T.I.

There is also a couple of untitled works of acrylic on
canvas by Raza besides his other acrylic works 'Bindu' (Rs
3,600,000-Rs 4,500,000) and 'Beeja' (Rs 10,000,000).

There is a set of 11 pencil works on paper called
"Nehru Series" where India's first prime minister is seen
with several leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Tagore and Indira
Gandhi among others. PTI