M F Husain's Female Nude auction in London

Kolkata: Renowned UK-based auctioneer Bonhams, which has been putting fine art and antiques under the hammer since 1793, is coming up with a sale of Indian and Islamic art in London around October-end.

The Indian modern and contemporary art section embraces around 60 lots. This category of paintings is led by a classic Raja Ravi Varma painting that is estimated at £50,000-70,000, M F Husain's Female Nude with a reserve price of £40,000-60,000, F N Souza's Landscape estimated at £60,000-80,000 and Amrita Sher-Gil's Seated Girl, which is pegged in the range of £20,000-30,000. Incidentally, the total estimated value of Indian modern and contemporary section is placed between £363,800 and 526,000.

Among some of the other highlights of the sale is F N Souza's Still Life, which is going for £30,000-50,000, Souza's Head at £15,000-20,000, and another Souza titled Northern Lights at Gill's Rock, which is hovering in the band of £35,000-40,000. In the same breath, M.F. Husain's Horses shows an estimate of £10,000-15,000, Ganesh Haloi's The Lord Buddha the Enlightened sports an estimate of £10,000-15,000, Jamini Roy's Female Dancer is valued at £8,000-12,000, while D.P. Roy Chowdhury's An Inmate of the Harem is priced at £8,000-12,000.

Jamini Roy's Krishna and Yashoda is also going under the hammer at £5,000-7,000, while S.H. Raza's Bombay Street Scene is being offered between £10,000 and 15,000. In step, K.H. Ara's Still Life re-flects an estimate of £3,000-5,000, Jogen Chowdhury's Flower £3,000-4,000, Laxma Goud's Two Women with a Goat £4,000-6,000, Avinash Chandra's The Moon and the Fountain £8,000-10,000 and a J. Sultan Ali at £5,000-7,000. In tandem, Sadanand Bakre's Riverside

Scene is placed at £5,000-7,000 and K.G. Subramanyan's Garden Terrace with Divine Visitor enjoys a reserve of £6,000-8,000. Head and specialist of Indian and Pakistani paintings at Bonhams Mehreen Rizvi told ET in an email from London,

"The picture by Amrita Sher-Gil being sold by Bonhams is a study for Sher-Gil's well-known work, Fruit Vendors. It is estimated to sell for £20,000 to 30,000. Last year, a painting by Sher-Gil sold for the equivalent of £840,000, making it the second most expensive Indian painting ever. The work was the property of the dancer, actor and choreographer Bissano Ram Gopal (1917-2003) and subsequently Pamela Cullen, Ram Gopal's nurse."Ms Rizvi added:

"The Bonhams sale also includes another amazing painting by Raja Ravi Varma. In 1880, Raja Ravi Varma, the leading Indian artist of his day, painted the image of the Maharaja of Travancore and his younger brother welcoming Richard Temple-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, governor general of Madras on his official visit to Trivandrum in 1880. The auction also includes paintings by well-known artists like M.F. Husain, F.N. Souza, Sadanand Bakre, B. Prabha, S.H. Raza and Jamini Roy amongst others."

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