Art collectors grab Nirav Modi’s collection for whopping $8 million
mumbai — Indian tax authorities raised about $8 million in an auction on Tuesday of rare oil paintings that were once part of fugitive billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi’s collection and seized by the government.
Tax authorities who are pursuing Modi in connection with the country’s largest bank fraud appointed auction house Saffronart to carry out the sale of 68 works.
The sale will be challenged in court on Wednesday by lawyers for a company controlled by Modi that owns the artwork.
Auctioneers say the sale, which was originally expected to raise up to $7.3 million, was the first of its kind in a country where tax authorities have usually auctioned property, gold and luxury items, but not art. An oil painting by Raja Ravi Varma, a 19th century painter considered among India’s finest, fetched the taxman 161 million rupees ($2.3 million), while another by modernist V.S. Gaitonde raised $3.7 million.
Over 80 per cent of the works on auction were sold, Saffronart chief executive Dinesh Vazirani said.
India Law Alliance, the law firm representing the company controlled by Modi that owned the art, is challenging the court order that allowed the auction. The case will be heard by the Bombay High Court on Wednesday, a lawyer at the firm told Reuters.
Vijay Aggarwal, a lawyer for Modi, declined to comment on the holding of the auction.