Sabavala Fetches Record Sum at Bonhams

It was the last stage of Padma Shri awardee Jehangir Sabavala’s artistic career — “a celebration of the stylised human figure as pilgrim,wanderer and survivor of cataclysm”,as independent curator Ranjit Hoskote put it — which marked the latest Bonhams’ annual summer sale of Modern and Contemporary South Asian art. At the auction which was held in London on Thursday,Sabavala’s Vespers I was sold for a whopping £ 2,53,650 (approximately Rs 2.2 crore) . The work,an oil on canvas,dated ‘68 below the canvas,which shows a group of nuns standing in front of a worship house-like structure,was initially estimated to be sold at £ 1,00,000 – £ 1,50,000 (Rs 85.7 lakh- 1.3 crore),but a saleroom tussle between two buyers shot up the amount. “Firstly,you don’t see many works by Sabavala in such an auction,and secondly,the prices of his works rose after his death. So,the sale is a pleasant surprise,” says Gayatri Juneja,India representative for Bonhams.

Adds Mehreen Rizvi,head of Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art,Bonhams,“It is about time Sabavala achieved commercial success in the art market to mirror his artistic reputation.” His work was up for sale in the league of 72 other celebrated Indian,Pakistani and Sri Lankan artists,including MF Husain,Jamini Roy,B. Prabha,Sadequain,Jamil Naqsh and AR Chughtai and Gulgee,and some works sourced from private collections in Europe and the US. Other significant works that were auctioned alongside Sabavala’s work include Husain’s The Blue Lady,which sold for £ 97,250 (Rs 83.4 lakh) and Pakistani artist Gulgee’s Buzkashi,which sold for £ 61,250 (Rs 52.5 lakh).