Sotheby's scraps award, stuns art world

Sotheby's scraps award, stuns art world
SANJUKTA SHARMA

MARCH 21: The decision of Sotheby's, the London-based auction house, to put an abrupt end to its three-year-old annual Sotheby's Award for Indian artists, has taken the art world by surprise. After its conspicuous lull following an ignominious loss of its license to auction antiquated works of Indian art nearly four years ago, Sotheby's returned to India with a bang, with the institution of the award for contemporary Indian art in 1998-99, which, many critics interpreted as ``a damage-limitation exercise.''

A ``damage'' caused by British arts journalist Peter Watson's unearthing of dubious connections between art smugglers and auction houses, naming a few senior functionaries of Sotheby's. And which was perpetuated by Sotheby's: The Inside Story, a Channel Four film, which vividly captured shots of such smuggling by Sotheby's, including a rare Yakshi sculpture from India.

While artists, gallery owners, art critics and art administrators reacted to the discontinuation of the three-year-old award with shock, inside sources in the art industry have their own speculations based on close association with Sotheby's and the people involved.

According to these sources, a primary reason could be the going away of Savita Apte, former representative of Christie's in India, who had taken great initiative in making the award a success. It could also be a feud within the auction house, between the Sotheby family and the management. Or perhaps a logical loss of interest in the art of this particular region of the world, based on low response to contemporary Indian art in international auctions, conjectured experts, on condition of anonymity.

While Savita Apte was unavailable for comment and the London office of Sotheby's is silent about the sudden move, Anupa Mehta, who runs Artworks, the art management company, responsible for the publicity of the award here, refused to divulge details. ``Yes, the award has been stopped, but I am not in a position to talk about the reasons behind it,'' Mehta said.

While the mystery behind this sudden move has piqued many in the art community, almost everyone regrets the decision. Saryu Doshi, Honorary Director of the NGMA, refusing to speculate on the reasons says, ``Since Sotheby's is such a well-known organisation the award was a great boost to young, contemporary artists. It is a great loss, especially to Indian artists of the younger generation.''

On behalf of the artistic community, Atul Dodiya, who was nominated for the award and is relatively better known in the international art market, said, ``For whatever reason the Sotheby's Award was instituted, it was monumental for the younger lot of Indian artists, who are doing good, exciting work. While The Lalit Kala Academy Award amounted to a meagre Rs 10,000, this award was a whopping three lakhs, something on the lines of the controversial British Turner Award. Even the Harmony Award instituted by Reliance cannot replace the Sotheby's Award because this award had an established name tagged to it.''

Senior artist Jehangir Sabavala succintly voices a similar regret, ``I have no knowledge of why the award was stopped, but it is certainly an immense loss.''