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The demand for Indian artefacts continues to soar in London auctions despite a global credit crunch. Bonhams' record sale of Mughal Emperor Shahjahan's khanjar at £ 1.7 million was the last of three in London last week after auctions by Sotheby's and Christie's International. All three sales tested demand for Indian and Islamic art among western buyers. The sale raised a total of £ 2.8 million with fees, and 78.5 per cent of the 305 lots sold.
Auction houses in Britain have offered a collection of all kinds of art pieces from India and almost all fetched more than the estimated price. Art business houses in London have sold miniature paintings from the Rajasthani and Pahari courts to early Jain and Pre-Mughal traditions in the last few weeks. Old Indian photographs, antiquities, calligraphy, textiles, swords and daggers, stonework, sculpture and jewellery, all have gone under the hammer.
A record £ 37.3 million of sales in the art world have been registered in London in April, more than double the £ 16 million-estimate. Sotheby's total has been
£ 21.5 million, Christie's International stood at £ 11.8 million and it was £ 4 million for Bonhams.
Amid recent global stock market turmoil, investors were scouring Asian art in London for bigger profits. Chinese and Indian art has come to be viewed as another commodity to invest. Art observers have noticed a 10 to 60 fold price increase in artifacts.
A dagger that once belonged to Mughal Emperor Shahjahan, sold for £ 1,700,000 at Bonhams Indian and Islamic sale. The elegant dagger, dates back to 1629-30, is perhaps one of the most complete documented pieces of the emperor's time.
The khanjar was acquired by an anonymous buyer on the telephone, who beat a £ 1.3 million bid from representatives of billionaire Vijay Mallya, present at the auction. The presale estimate was between £ 300,000-500,000.
The 16-inch long gold encrusted curved khanjar is part of Jacques Desenfan's collection. Desenfan, a Belgian enthusiast, spent over 50 years collecting arms, armours and other artefacts from the Indian subcontinent.
There were other items also on sale from Desenfan's collection including stunningly decorated horse and camel saddles from India, Persia and China.
Then there were dozens of images of Indian princes by leading early photographers and album of Kashmiri views at the same auction house. This collection of photographs owned by late NRI Kanwardip Gujral, sold for a record price of £ 512,000. Gujral was a Hamburg-based businessman who was born in Lahore but brought up in Agra. His first purchase of Indian photographs was in 1976.
Two of the highlights are panoramas of the Taj Mahal and the Jama Masjid at Agra dating from around 1860.
David Park, head of Books Maps and Manuscripts at Bonhams said that the strength of interest in the sale was impressive and that it had set a new benchmark for images of this kind.
Top item in the sale was a series of 102 prints of Kashmir in the 1860s and 70s owned by Lord Lansdowne, the Viceroy of India for the period from 1886 to 1894. It sold for £ 72,000, much higher than the estimate. The photographs were by John Burke, William Baker and James Craddock. Images range widely, from the North-West Frontier to Bengal, Himachal Pradesh to Madras.
Bonham's also sold an illustration from the "Shangri" Ramayan: Hanuman attacking Ravan's demons, circa 1700-1710 for £ 15,000.
Last month, six Indian artists stole the show at the Sotheby's contemporary art auction in London and their creations together fetched $ 11,69,886. The highest price went to Raqib Shaw's work -- Garden of Earthly Delights. There were works from TV Santosh, Subodh Gupta, Ravinder Reddy, Anju Dodiya and Shibu Natesan.
Sotheby's contemporary art specialist James Sevier said, "The six Indian works received huge presale interest from collectors looking to Indian contemporary art as a flourishing sector of the international art market, that is emerging and affordable."
Sotheby's maintain that Indian contemporary art now has an established coterie of western collectors.
Bloomsbury forthcoming sale of oil paintings, watercolours, drawings & prints has several Indian subjects. The most unusual being "Lot 64", which consists of three Indian company school watercolours depicting a gruesome religious, ritual dance involving hooks, piercing and impaling.
Sotheby's 'The Indian sale' in May will present Indian paintings and watercolour prints.
The auction house has works of legends like Rabindranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, Avinash Chandra, Prosanto Roy, MF Hussain, B Prabha and Ram Kumar, to name a few.
Christie's, South Kensington centre is showcasing Indian and Islamic works of art, which includes miniature paintings Pahari, Rajasthani, Mughal and Jain style with varied subjects like life of Lord Krishna and Ragamala paintings.
Amid record sales and profits for art businesses, London emerges as an important centre for all things related to Indian art -- contemporary and classics.
Nandini Jawli | London
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