At the third auction organised under her Triveda banner, Pillai finds solace in the Tanjore paintings, with all four listed finding takers, and Maharaja and Maharani laced with gold going for Rs 9 lakh. “That experiment seemed to have worked,” says Pillai, as she waves her hand toward the Kishengarh and Indo-Islamic miniatures that invite considerable bidding, with one reportedly going to Neville Tuli of Osian’s Art and Auction Foundation. “I may introduce some of them in auctions later.”

Meanwhile, it was the Masters who seemed to have lost the race. M F Husain may have crossed the million-dollar mark at the recent auction by Emami Chisel Art in Kolkata, but in Delhi two of his early works priced at Rs 20 lakh each, failed to attract attention. S H Raza’s Ankuran, at Rs 40 lakh, did not interest any art aficionado nor did Krishen Khanna’s Woman on a Lazy Afternoon, at Rs 21 lakh. “I guess the collectors were not in a mood to buy,” concludes auctioneer Dolly Thakore, who played her role well as she gently prompted the audience to “take a closer look at the rare works” and suggested that “several of them have classical value”.

However, some went home happy. Just before the auction, director of the Dhoomimal Gallery, Uday Jain, might have been in two minds about picking up Chandra Bhattacharjee’s Implosion, but on the final count he not only bagged it for Rs 3.7 lakh, but also got Shail Choyal’s untitled acrylic on canvas and a Thota Vaikuntham charcoal on canvas. Dr Ashok Agarwal of the Bhoruka Charitable Trust, which owns 50 works put on auction, grabbed an untitled PN Choyal for Rs 1.45 lakh. “It belonged to the trust and since my wife liked it we decided to buy it through fair means,” he said. What went wrong with the auction? “Nothing much. The value of art will only appreciate so there is no remorse,” said Agarwal.