New Delhi: Twelve rare art works by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore were auctioned by Sotheby's at its sale of South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art in London on Tuesday. Most of the works overshot the combined pre-sale estimate of 250,000 pounds.
The works, belonging to the Dartington Hall Trust, were dated 1938. They were gifted by Tagore to old friend Leonard Elmhirst and his wife, American heiress Dorothy Whitney Elmhirst, who owned the estate and set up the trust.
An untitled portrait of a woman from the Lot 26 that was estimated at 40,000 pounds sold for 313,250 pounds, which included the hammer price and the buyer's premium. Another untitled composition of a lady with a fan estimated at 30,000 pounds was sold at 103,250 pounds while another untitled figure with green background, priced at 40,000 pounds, fetched 133,250 pounds.
Sotheby's charges a fee, known as the buyer's price, for every art work sold, which is added to the winning bid or the hammer price to arrive at the exact post-sale estimate of an artwork.
An untitled landscape by the Nobel Laureate with a pre-sale price of 15,000 pounds sold for 97,250 pounds while another landscape in yellow went for 91,250 pounds against a pre-sale tag of 20,000 pounds.
Sources at Sotheby's said the "the prices at the auction marked a return of buoyancy in the auction market after a period of lull".
Tagore created a body of more than 2,500 art works between 1924 and 1941.
Commenting on the sale, Holly Blackberry, deputy director of Indian art at Sotheby's said: "Bringing the 12-museum paintings by one of the key modern masters of Indian painting has been a privilege."
"Together, they form a stand-out group and all them have an impeccable provenance of having been in the possession Dartington Hall most of their life. Given their exemplary history and Tagore's status as one of India's most illustrious artist, the sale was once in a life-time acquisition opportunity."
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