Souza’s painting sells for `13 cr in London sale

NEW DELHI: Modernist painter Francis Newton Souza’s ‘The Deposition’ sold for a whopping £1,565,000 (approx `13 crore) at Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art Sale in London. The 1963 masterwork, which was the top lot of the sale, is among the most celebrated works of the artist from his exhibition ‘The Human and the Divine Predicament’, held at London’s Grosvenor Gallery in 1964.

“Francis Newton Souza’s ‘The Deposition’ estimated at £400,000600,000 (approx `3 to 4 crore ), achieved a spectacular £1,565,000, almost three times the estimate,” Sotheby’s statement said. All of the 21 paintings from Herr Amacker collection that had not been seen since the 1970s, were also sold at the auction, with Ganesh Pyne’s ‘Under the Fountain’ fetching the highest price in the lot. The ‘Art of the Middle East and India’ sale week is till October 20.