Despite protests in India, a set of 12 rare paintings by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore was Tuesday sold off for a whopping 1.6 million pounds at an auction house here.
The art works of Tagore massively exceeded the
pre-sale combined estimate of 250,000 pounds at the Sotheby's auction.
The collection was described by Sotheby's auctioneers as "arguably the most important group of works by Tagore ever to appear at an auction".
Sotheby's declined to reveal the identity of the buyers of Tuesday's 12 paintings, describing them as anonymous.
A Sotheby's spokeswoman said all the pictures sold well above the asking price.
One of the art works, untitled Portrait of a Woman, painted in dark tones by Tagore in 1938, fetched 313,250 pounds as against the pre-sale price of 30,000-40,000 pounds.
Another untitled 'Portrait of a Woman' in watercolour, gouache, coloured ink and pastel on paper also done in 1938 went for 223,250 pounds as against a pre-sale estimated price of 25,000-30,000 pounds.
The news of the auction last month had led some art lovers and politicians in India to seek intervention by the Indian government. They said the paintings were national heritage and should be brought back to the country.
Eastern Indian state West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asking him to take steps to bring the paintings back home.
Culture Ministry officials in New Delhi were
tight-lipped over what role the Indian government would assume at the auction, but some officials made it clear that the government cannot officially bid for the paintings.
The paintings were sold by the Dartington Hall Trust charity and the Trust is expected to get a good chunk of funding for their arts education programmes from the sale of the paintings.
The charity - set up to advance innovative ideas and programmes in education, social reform and rural regeneration in the 1920s - has strong ties to Tagore.
The estate in the south-west English county of Devon was purchased by Leonard Elmhirst, a close friend of Tagore.
Elmhirst travelled to India to work as Tagore's private secretary.
Over the year, the Dartington Hall Trust amassed an extensive collection of works of art.
Officials said it is not clear how the 12 Tagore paintings arrived at Dartington, but it is probable that they were a gift from Tagore to his great friend and companion.
Tagore visited Dartington on a number of occasions.
The Trust also holds a huge archive of his
photographs, letters and other items.
"We have a successful track record of selling works by Tagore and in fact set an auction record for a work by him when his Death Scene sold for 120,000 pounds in May 2008," Sotheby's said.
"However, works by Tagore are relatively rare to the auction market."
Responding to calls from various art organisations in India, the Indian government had tried to stop the auction of the rare works, but it is understood that the efforts have produced no results.
Sources said a senior Culture Ministry official was in London last week and met Sotheby's officials and discussed about the sale of the paintings.
They said the country, however, does not have any legal rights over the paintings. The government had faced the same situation when Mahatma Gandhi's personal belongings were
auctioned in New York.
Sources said by its very nature the Indian government could not directly bid for the paintings.
Other highlights of this year's South Asian Art at Sotheby's included an extremely rare large scale bronze by Somnath Hore, two early figurative oils by F N Souza and two large paintings by S H Raza.