112 luxury assets belonging to Nirav Modi to be auctioned
MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) appointed international auction house, Saffronart, will in an online and offline auction, put up for sale 112 luxury assets seized from fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi.
Under the hammer will be, among other items, a Rolls Royce Ghost, bags from luxury retailer Hermes, paintings by MF Husain, Amrita Sher-gil, VS Gaitonde and other modern masters.
An accused in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and money laundering case, Modi, 48, is fighting extradition from the US to India. He is currently in Wandsworth prison in south west London.
The live auction will be held at Saffrontart auction house February 27; the online auction will be on March 3 and 4.
One year ago, Saffronart had auctioned, on behalf of the Income-tax department, 68 artworks seized from Modi, raising ₹54.84 crore from 55 lots. The forthcoming auctions will feature a total of 112 lots seized from Modi, including significant artworks by leading modern and contemporary Indian artists, and a selection of luxury handbags by renowned brands such as Chanel, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, and Celine, a Cartier Asymmetric ‘Crash’ Wristwatch and a Porsche Panamera car
“The line-up for our Spring Live and Online Auctions on behalf of the Enforcement Directorate offers a great opportunity to bid on an extremely well curated collection of high-value artworks and luxury collectibles. Some of the paintings on offer are extremely important works by India’s eminent modernists and many of them rarely come up to auction such as the seminal oil on canvas by Amrita Sher-gil which is making its first appearance in the auction market,” said Saffronart’s CEO and Co-founder, Dinesh Vazirani.
The ‘Oil on Canvas’ portrait of a woman by Raja Ravi Varma is expected to fetch between ₹2 and ₹3 crore.
“The diaphanous cloth covering her, and the intricacy of the ornaments adorning her ears, neck and hands are almost palpable in their detail,” the catalogue says. ‘Boys with Lemons’ by Shergil has an estimated price of ₹12 to ₹18 crore. The catalogue calls both “non-exportable national art treasure”.
A 1972 Gaitonde is estimated to fetch ₹7 to ₹9 crore and a Manjit Bawa is estimated to fetch ₹3 to ₹5 crore.
Also on the list during the live sale is a significant oil on canvas work from 1972 titled Battle of Ganga and Jamuna: Mahabharata 12 by M F Husain, estimated to bring in between ₹12 to 18 crore. “Husain contemporarises the epic Mahabharata, focusing on the psychological component and the metaphor of internal moral struggles that it represents through the battle between the two rivers,” a Saffronart statement said.