Husain, Souza, Tagore Under The Hammer

MF Husain's horses

The world just doesn’t seem to be tiring of MF Husain’s iconic, if very typical, horses. In March, an untitled painting of a woman riding four of Husain’s favourite beasts sold for a massive Rs2.01 crore (the pre-sale estimate was Rs90 lakh-Rs 1.2 crore).

Next week, Sotheby’s in London plans to auction off another untitled painting of five galloping horses by the master of modern Indian art at a base price of Rs2.1 crore ($460,000).

FN Souza's Pagoda Head

Joining him on the block is FN Souza, whose monster-inspired ‘Pagoda Head’ is expected to fetch upwards of Rs1 crore ($230,000) and Rabindranath Tagore with 12 rare paintings, priced between Rs2-28 lakh ($4,600-$61,000).

Maithli Parekh of Sotheby’s told IANS: “The auction is extremely important because of the 12 rare paintings by Tagore. The compositions, unlike the Nobel laureate's doodles and etchings, are mature because he had gifted them to friend Leonard Elmhirst and his wife, the American heiress Whitney Elmhirst."

Images: Sothebys.com