Page 25 - Eye of the beholder

In 20th Century India, specially in Bengal, there were only a few artists who drew voyeuristic and semi nude images of women. In addition to Atul Bose and Jogesh Seal, Hemen Majumdar was the most important among these artists.
My fascination with Hemen goes back a long time. I had wanted to own a work by him since the time I started reading up on Indian art. For some reason, his works were always difficult to lay hands on. And then there were a few notable scandals involving his works – the most prominent one that involved a stolen work surfacing in a bowrings auction.
In 2010, I identified a new painting by Hemen in an auction. It was a small provincial auction house in the UK whose name I do not remember anymore. The image of the lot was published as a dirty stamp size photograph without any attribution whatsoever. On enquiry, the auction house confirmed that the lot lacked a signature. However, one look at the work, and it was clear to me that I was looking at a work by Hemen. The lot was estimated at GBP 800, but went up considerably higher. I dropped out of the race at around GBP 8000. Subsequently, a few months later, to my surprise, the same lot appeared at Sothebys and sold at a handsome price. Upon enquiry with Sothebys, they conformed that a signature had emerged in the painting after it was cleaned. Whats even more mysterious is that there is no trace of the painting in the Sothebys website even though it was sold in their auction.
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