Zainul Abedin’s art fetches over $600,000 at Sotheby’s, breaking auction records

In a recent auction organised by renowned auction house Sotheby's in London, United Kingdom, two paintings by the Bangladeshi art maestro 'Shilpacharya' Zainul Abedin fetched record prices, the highest for any Bangladeshi artist in history.

Sotheby's, which was founded in London close to 300 years ago but is now headquartered in New York, recently organised an auction in London on Thursday (September 26) titled 'Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art', where these two paintings were auctioned at record prices.

According to Sotheby's website, one of the two paintings, "Untitled," was sold for 516,000 GBP, or $692,048, equivalent to Tk 8.27 crore. This is a work from Zainul's 'Monpura 70' series which the artist painted in southern Char Monpura after the disastrous cyclone of 1970. Millions of people lost their lives in that cyclone.

The other painting, another of the Shilpacharya’s "Untitled (Group of Figures)" series was sold for US $643,690, which is approximately Tk 7.69 crore.

Both of these original artworks were gifted by Shilpacharya to Cedomil Plazek, a hydrogeologist and representative of Geotehnika Yugoslavia for the United Nations. He lived in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and for many years worked on the United Nations’ groundwater resources development project, as per the description written on the Sotheby's website.

During his tenure in Bangladesh, Plazek befriended Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin, who gifted him these two paintings, according to the description of these two auctioned paintings.

As per the description, the first painting is an 'ink and wash on paper' based work, measured as 54.5 x 74.6 cm (21 3/8 x 29 3/8 in.), signed and dated 'Zainul / 1970' and stamped lower right, and executed in 1970. The second painting is an ‘oil on canvas’ artwork, measured as 68 x 153.8 cm (26 ¾ x 60 ½ in.), signed and dated 'Zainul. 71' lower right, and painted in 1971.

Besides these two record-setting paintings, a third painting by the art maestro titled "Untitled (Figures)", sold for $289,663, or Tk 3.46 crore.

Back in March this year, Sotheby's auctioned two record-setting paintings of Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin in New York, USA. One of them was his famous painting “Untitled” (Santal Couple), painted in 1951, and was sold for $381,000. Another painting “Untitled,” created between 1956 and 1963 depicting a woman at rest, was sold for $279,400.