Online auction of 72 items seized from Nirav fetches ₹2.29 crore

MUMBAI: All 72 seized items, including luxury bags, designer watches and 2010 Porsche Panamera, belonging to fugitive diamond merchant, Nirav Modi, were auctioned off online for ~2.29 crore by the city-based auction house, Saffronart, on Wednesday.

Saffronart conducted the sale on behalf of the Enforcement Directorate, and put up an array of luxury and designer goods comprising 51 bags, 20 watches and the 2010 Porsche Panamera.

The auction fetched over four times than the sum estimated, as 97% of the items, or 70 of 72 items, crossed their maximum bid prices.

A 1967 Cartier, an asymmetric ‘Crash’ wristwatch, was sold for ~36.4 lakh and over 10 times more than its upper estimate of ~3 lakh. The Porsche went for ~36.06 lakh --- over twice its upper estimate. A Vianney Halter and Goldpfeil wristwatch with moon phases, which was pegged at ~ 2.5 lakh as the upper estimate, fetched ~12.93 lakh.

Among the bags, a Loius Vuitton cabin trunk topped the winning bid at ~8.62 lakh against an upper estimate of ~90,000.

“We saw competitive bidding across categories and countries, with over 700 advance bids received prior to the auction’s opening. It is one of the most successful online auctions for us till date,” said Minal Vazirani, president and co-founder of Saffronart.

The online auction will be followed by a live bidding, which was postponed from last week and now scheduled for Thursday. The 40 lots on the block at the live auction include 15 artworks, a 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost and a selection of handbags and watches. “We anticipate an equally enthusiastic response at the live auction,” Vazirani said.

These auctions come a year after Saffronart auctioned 68 seized artworks belonging to Modi, on behalf of the IncomeTax Department, last March, raising ~54.84 crore from 55 lots.