ARTIANA Auction House

Published: May 4, 2018 (moneycontrol.com), by Tasmayee Laha Roy

Artiana, a Dubai-based online art auction platform, is putting up 55 Indian artworks on the block at their South Asian Art – Classical, Modern and Contemporary Online Auction between May 10 and May 14

This May, those who admire MF Husain and his works have something to look forward to. After selling his ‘The Last Supper’ at $ 1.1 million against a lower estimate of $700,000, Dubai-based online art auction platform Artiana is again putting up another 55 Indian artworks on the block at their South Asian Art – Classical, Modern and Contemporary Online Auction between May 10 and May 14.

The May auction will feature new-to-market works by MF Husain with ‘Trinity of Mother Teresa’ being the cover lot and another painted on the day of the India and Sri Lanka Cricket World Cup final match — two horses depicting the two teams as stallions of the cricket world. The auction that would have 90% Indian artwork also includes ‘Thou Sayest So’ by Krishen Khanna, ‘Shanti Bindu’ by SH Raza and an impressive bronze sculpture of Vishnu among other rare works by Bhupen Khakhar, Ram Kumar and SH Raza.

While ‘Trinity of Mother Teresa’ from 1989, a suitable vintage Husain artwork, has a lower estimate of $350,000, Krishen Khanna’s work has one of $100,000. The auction has a novelty factor too. Artiana has got rid of the buyer’s premium, facilitating bidders to invest more in the bid. “By getting rid of the buyer’s premium, we make sure that a bidder invests his entire budget on the artifact and not in paying service charges,” said Lavesh Jagasia, founder at Artiana, UAE’s first home-grown auction house for art and luxury collectibles.

According to Jagasia, his audience is divided into three halves — Indian bidders, bidders from UAE and those from the rest of the world.

After completing five successful auctions, Artiana’s future auctions are planned for art from the Middle East which will comprise works by Emirati artists including other surrounding countries and diaspora artists from this region, a sale of rugs and carpets, which will offer a range of hand-woven Oriental rugs and carpets, including textiles such as European paisley and Indian jamawar shawls.

Published: May 8, 2018 (Widewalls), by Angie Kordic

For four days this May, between the 10th and the 14th to be precise, there will be yet another splendid auction of South Asian Art hosted by the ARTIANA auction house from Dubai. A total of 60 lots will be featured in this online sale, including classical, modern and contemporary paintings and sculptures from the Indian subcontinent.

Among the highlights, we have an impressive bronze figure of Vishnu, a collection of 20 Company Paintings, a seminal 1989 painting by M.F. Husain, Trinity of Mother Teresa and Krishen Khanna’s marvelous Thou Sayest So from 1980.

Let us also not forget the leading figures of South Asian contemporary art, such as S.H. Raza, Bhupen Khakhar, F.N. Souza, Jamil Naqsh, Jogen Chowdhury… And who better to discuss this exciting sale than Lavesh Jagasia, ARTIANA’s founder and an expert on South Asian art with as many as three decades of experience in the field.

With Mr. Jagasia, we also discuss the introduction of VAT in the United Arab Emirates, its effect on the art market, the current state of affairs in that aspect, and of course, ARTIANA’s future plans. Have a read below!

How did ARTIANA’s last auction do and what are the highlights of the upcoming ‘South Asian Art’ sale?

Our last auction was very successful with a sell-through rate of 96% and total sales at 128% of the lower estimate value. Our cover lot, the seminal work by M.F. Husain based on ‘The Last Supper’ was sold for USD 1.1 Million against the pre-sale estimate of USD 700,000. This currently remains the most expensive painting sold on our platform, and we are very pleased with the confidence reposed in us by our buyers that are reflective of our results.

Being the only auction house in the Middle East that has a regular calendar of ‘South Asian Art’ auctions, what trends have you observed with collectors of this genre of art?

Yes, that is absolutely correct, in fact, we are the UAE’s first home-grown auction house for art and luxury collectibles and the only auction house in the region conducting auctions of South Asian art. The buyer base for this genre of art is the South Asian diaspora in the region and other overseas countries, besides collectors from India. There is a definite growing interest amongst the community to collect works of established artists, buying art for them is a tangible experience which we offer in our Dubai based viewing gallery. Quality works by Modernists with impeccable provenance generates the maximum interest, with the aesthetically appealing subjects being the most preferred, as these collectors want to live with the works rather than store them as pure investments.

Given the recent implementation of VAT in the UAE, how will this affect your auctions and the art market in general?

VAT in the UAE has been set at a very low rate of 5% for all goods and services. As an auction house dealing in pre-owned art and collectibles we are obliged to charge the VAT only on our commission, which is fixed at 20% of the Winning Bid, hence the net impact to the buyer’s within UAE will be negligible at just 1% of the total purchase price, and overseas buyers will not be charged any VAT. We feel that the overall art market will also be able to absorb the impact of the 5% VAT between the galleries and buyers without affecting sales.

ARTIANA was featured in the latest South Asian Art Market report as one of the top auction houses amongst other older auction houses, how have you managed to achieve this in a short span of time?

Yes, we managed to garner close to 5% market share of South Asian art which merited our inclusion in the list of top auction houses focusing on this genre of art. Even though ARTIANA exists publicly in its current structure for the last three years, actually it is a convergence of my three decades of engagement and experience in the South Asian art sphere, which brought together my expert knowledge, relationships, network and credibility to form this successful platform. Another aspect that may have acted as a catalyst is our disruptive ‘No Buyer’s Premium’ policy, which results in savings ranging from 15%-40% for our buyers as compared to the final payable amounts over and above the ‘Winning Bid’ at other auction houses.

According to recent art trade reports, lack of transparency is the main stumbling block holding the online art market thus fewer people purchase art online, how will ARTIANA address this?

Even though we use an omnichannel marketing strategy, and maintain a brick and mortar gallery for hosting our auction previews, we conduct all our auctions online and believe that this is the way forward for transacting art, hence our commitment towards furthering our digital strategy is always foremost in our business objectives. The key requirement to make this successful is gaining the confidence of new buyers that land on our website and retention of buyers that have transacted on our platform. The majority of these buyers use our past auction results for reference, and we permanently archive these results including the unsold lots for their information to maintain transparency on the pricing and the result of every lot offered at our sales. Besides this, the prospective buyers are provided with provenance for every work after an in-depth investigation into its authenticity and ownership, and a comprehensive Artiana guarantee that covers all items sold on our platform for a period of six months from the auction closing date. These aspects add to our reliability and ensure the buyers that they are transacting with a premier dependable auction house.

Please share with us ARTIANA’s journey till now and what can we look forward to in terms of ARTIANA’s future plans and sales?

ARTIANA has launched three years ago and conducted its first auction in March 2016, maintaining a calendar of two South Asian Art auctions in a year. After our first year, we introduced classical art in our catalogues that featured Gandharan and Indian sculptures and Indian miniature and company paintings sourced from outside India and vetted by our leading experts, these items have found a lot of interest with collectors, especially those based outside India as these works are non-exportable from within India. In terms of overall sales, we grew three-fold between our first auction and our last concluded sale and have received positive feedback from our clients for our efforts in combining a curated catalogue with multiple entry levels and low impact costs. We plan to continue building similar catalogues for our upcoming sales every March and October which have become permanent fixtures in the South Asian art calendar. This year we are planning to launch sales of Rugs & Carpets, Prints & Multiples followed by Middle Eastern art in the near future.

(Originally published in Widewalls)

ARTIANA Founder Lavesh Jagasia explains why South Asian art will weather the economic slowdown.

As the founder of UAE’s foremost home-grown auction house for art and luxury collectibles, Lavesh Jagasia knows his art – not just from the aesthetic point of view but also from a commercial perspective. As ARTIANA gears up to hold its next online auction on March 23-27, he takes us through the world of bidding and why the South Asian art market is recession-proof.

What’s the USP of your next auction? 

Our USP as an auction house is “what you bid is what you pay”; buyers at our auction do not pay any Buyer’s Premium over and above the winning bid amount. Other auction houses usually charge 25-30 percent Buyer’s Premium on the final bid amount making the artworks more expensive. Our upcoming sale is about presenting Classical artworks along with Modern and Contemporary selection. This is a rare occasion when a sale of Classical South Asian art is taking place in the region and these will be presented with the expertise of world-class scholars such as JP Losty for the Indian Miniature Paintings and Renzo Freschi for the Indian and Gandharan sculptures.

For a buyer, what is the advantage of participating in an online art auction? 

Online art auctions give buyers the benefit of a seamless and convenient platform to bid from across the globe! They can view the works in our gallery and participate in our timed online auction as per their respective time zones. Online auctioning reduces the high costs associated with live in-room bidding of art and luxury collectibles. Buyers can also view all the details of the work and study the artworks through high-resolution images provided on our online auction platform as if looking at the artworks in person. There are many buyers who prefer to remain discreet and this medium allows them that flexibility. Besides, there are options for ‘Proxy Bid’ in which case, a bidder can put in their upper limit bid and our proprietary auction application will bid on their behalf till this limit is reached, relieving the bidder of keeping a constant watch on the bid increments.

What tips would you give an art lover who is participating in an auction for the first time? How should he or she make smart choices?

• Check the credibility of the auction house.
• Make sure that they are selling genuine artworks by ascertaining their reputation and length of association with the sphere of art that they specialize in.
• Since art and luxury collectibles have a historically high value, make sure that you are getting the best value for your money by acquiring artworks that you love.
• Acquire a painting that you can live with for a long time, as art should not be acquired merely as an investment. It is an asset class that should be approached with a combination of passion and research.
• As much as possible, go for the auction houses who have a ‘No Buyer’s Premium Policy’ as it would save you from paying an additional 25-30% of the hammer price.

Given the general economic slowdown, what is your assessment of the art market currently? 

Based on my experience over many years which have included both highs and lows, I would say that the South Asian art market is hugely undervalued. The economic slowdown may broadly affect the mood of the buyer temporarily but confidence is proved time and again by record prices achieved by top-end works in which rare and sought-after pieces see hectic bidding activity. This is proof that the market for quality works remains extremely strong in any economic scenario. Moreover, the Indian economy is growing at a very healthy pace and has remained unaffected by the economic slowdown in the Gulf and other emerging economies.  In this current auction, the majority of our artworks are by Indian artists.

Can you recommend some South Asian artists to watch out for? 

We always recommend acquiring established masters from South Asia. The established artists we recommend any serious collector to acquire would be from the ‘Progressive Artists Group’ such as M. F. Husain, S. H. Raza, F. N. Souza, Ram Kumar and other artists such as Sakti Burman, Jehangir Sabavala, Jogen Chowdhury and Jamil Naqsh.

What are your favorite pieces that will be going under the hammer in the auction? 

We have a seminal work of S. H. Raza titled ‘Emergence’; this work was painted in 1988 and has been published on the cover and inside of one of the artists’ most important books. There is a very large work of M F Husain titled ‘Islam’, this massive work is from his ‘Theorama’ series and is worthy of any museum acquisition.

Source: ‘South Asian Art Market Is Hugely Undervalued’: Lavesh Jagasia