112 luxury assets of Nirav Modi to be auctioned on Feb 27, Mar 3 and 4

The Enforcement Directorate (ED)-appointed international auction house, Saffron art, will, in an online and offline auction, put up for sale 112 luxury assets seized from diamond merchant Nirav Modi.

Under the hammer will be, among other luxury items, a Rolls Royce Ghost, bags from luxury retailer Hermes, paintings by MF Husain, Amrita Sher-Gil, VS Gaitonde and other modern masters.

An accused in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and money laundering case, Modi, 48, is fighting extradition from the UK to India. He is currently in Wandsworth Prison in south west London.

The live auction will be held at Saffronart auction house on February 27. The online auction will be held on March 3 and 4. A year ago, Saffronart had auctioned, on behalf of the income tax department, 68 artworks seized from Modi, raising ₹54.84 crore from 55 lots.

The forthcoming auctions will feature a total of 112 lots seized from Modi, including significant artworks by leading modern and contemporary Indian artists, and a selection of luxury handbags by renowned brands such as Chanel, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, and Celine, a Cartier Asymmetric ‘Crash’ Wristwatch and a Porsche Panamera car

“The line-up for our Spring Live and Online Auctions on behalf of the Enforcement Directorate offers a great opportunity to bid on an extremely well curated collection of high-value artworks and luxury collectibles. Some of the paintings on offer are extremely important works by India’s eminent modernists and many of them rarely come up to auction such as the seminal oil on canvas by Amrita Sher-Gil which is making its first appearance in the auction market,” said Saffronart’s CEO and Co-Founder, Dinesh Vazirani.

The ‘Oil on Canvas’ portrait of a woman by Raja Ravi Varma is expected to fetch between ₹2 and ₹3 crore. “The diaphanous cloth covering her, and the intricacy of the ornaments adorning her ears, neck and hands are almost palpable in their detail,” the catalogue says. ‘Boys with Lemons’ by Sher-Gil has an estimated price of ₹12 to ₹18 crore. The catalogue calls both “non-exportable national art treasure”.

“Boys with Lemons, perhaps painted in the summer of 1935 when Sher-Gil was back in her family home at Simla, is an important work in Sher-Gil’s oeuvre. The depiction of the two boys selling lemons, their expressions resigned and forlorn, was deliberate,” the catalogue says.

A 1972 Gaitonde is estimated to fetch ₹7 to ₹9 crore and a Manjit Bawa is estimated to fetch ₹3 to ₹5 crore.

Also on the list during the live sale is a significant oil on canvas work from 1972 titled Battle of Ganga and Jamuna: Mahabharata 12 by M F Husain, estimated to bring in between ₹12 to 18 crore. “Husain contemporarises the epic Mahabharata, focusing on the psychological component and the metaphor of internal moral struggles that it represents through the battle between the two rivers,” a Saffronart statement said.

Among the 25 luxury collectibles are several important timepieces, including a rare Jaeger-LeCoultre Men’s ‘Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2’ limited edition wristwatch estimated between ₹55 lakh to ₹70 lakh, which features the patented spherical tourbillon with a groundbreaking cylindrical hairspring, and has a reversing large platinum case, reads a Saffronart statement.

Another exquisite wristwatch in the sale is a Patek Phillipe ‘Nautilus’ Gold and Diamond Wristwatch, also ₹55 lakh to ₹70 lakh, which is made of 18K yellow gold and embellished with pave-set diamonds across the dial, bezel and bracelet. Select lots from both auctions are being exhibited at Saffronart’s gallery, Mumbai, till March 4.

“Nirav Modi has built an exceptional collection and has some iconic pieces of contemporary and modern art. I believe he acquired them with the help of an advisor over a couple of years. The Amrita-Sher Gil is particularly rare, and comes with bankable provenance. It’s been widely shown and was acquired directly from the family,” says art adviser Farah Siddiqui Khan. Modi’s Untitled Raja Ravi Varma was part of her Ravi Varma exhibition, Pages of the Mind, held in 2016.