Twenty-five rare paintings by legendary Indian modernist Maqbool Fida Husain are set to be auctioned in Mumbai on June 12. The event, titled ‘MF Husain: An Artist's Vision of the XX Century’, will take place at Hamilton House, marking the first time these artworks will be publicly exhibited in India.
According to The Indian Express, these paintings belong to a larger, unfinished series of 100 works conceptualized by Husain under the acronym OPCE (Our Planet Called Earth). Completed in 2004, the paintings were initially showcased at Dubai’s Burj Al Arab and later at the Pierre Cardin Centre in Paris. Businessman and art collector Swarup Srivastava later acquired the collection.
In these paintings, Husain captured major events and icons of the 20th century. Cultural theorist Ranjit Hoskote, in the official auction catalogue, noted that Husain’s works reflect themes like World Wars, aviation, space exploration, cinema, and nature’s contrast with urbanization. The collection also features Husain’s signature horses and portraits of iconic personalities such as Humphrey Bogart, Charlie Chaplin, Marcel Marceau, and Mahatma Gandhi.
This auction follows a landmark moment for Indian art earlier this year when an untitled Husain painting fetched a record $13.8 million at Christie’s in New York, becoming the most expensive Indian artwork ever sold. However, the history of these 25 paintings includes legal complications. In 2006, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probed Srivastava and the Swarup Group over financial irregularities involving NAFED. A tribunal in 2008 allowed NAFED to secure assets, including these paintings. Recently, art expert Dadiba Pundole valued the collection at Rs 25 crore.
The upcoming auction is expected to attract strong interest from collectors and art institutions for both its rarity and cultural value.
