Raza earn billions in his painting auction

It's proving to be quite a scorching summer for Indian art. Syed Haider Raza became India's priciest modern artist on Thursday when a seminal work by the 88-year-old sold for a whopping Rs 16.3 crore ($3.49 million) at a Christie's auction in London.

Just two summers back, a work by Francis Newton Souza had set the record for the most expensive piece of modern art by notching up $2.5 million or Rs 10.5 crore. Since then, prices of Indian art had crashed though the fall in contemporary art was much more drastic than the moderns.

Aptly, it's the country's two best-known masters who are making the meltdown seem like a distant memory.

"Strength is coming back to the art market. We are also seeing a lot of new bidders across the world from Hong Kong, the UAE and the US," said Yamini Mehta, director of the contemporary Indian art department at Christie's.

Just a day earlier, the London-based auction house put over 500 works by Souza under the hammer. They fetched $7.9 million, more than double the pre-sale estimate. Ninety-seven per cent of the Souza lots found buyers, with a top price of $1.3 million paid for the 1962 oil, 'Red Curse', painted on black satin while the artist was living in London. The dark 6-foot-high mage of a female nude being attacked by a snarling, many-eyed beast was sold to a European buyer.

The price for Raza's work 'Saurashtra' wasn't out of the blue. Raza considers it to be one of the 10 most important works he has done in his life. Known for his bindu art, Raza was a founder member of the Bombay Progressive Artist's group along with Souza. He first came to prominence in Paris where he moved in 1950.

Painted in 1983, 'Saurashtra' belongs to a key period in Raza's career when, after many years working within the styles of the Ecole de Paris and Abstract Expressionism, he began to integrate vital elements of his childhood and heritage into his paintings. This particular work depicts the beauty of the Gujarati coastal landscape.

Grand Masters
F N Souza: Birth sold for $2.48m on June 11, 2008
S H Raza: La Terre sold for $2.54m on June 30, 2008
S H Raza: Saurashtra sold for $3.49m on June 10, 2010