
How India's 'biggest art deal' buried MF Husain masterpieces in a bank vault
The paintings are set to go up for auction for the first time on 12 June in India's financial capital, Mumbai.
Maqbool Fida Husain was an Indian painter and film director who painted narrative paintings in a modified Cubist style. He was one of the founding members of Bombay Progressive Artists' Group. M.F. Husain is associated with Indian modernism in the 1940s. His early association with the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group used modern technique, and was inspired by the "new" India after the partition of 1947. His narrative paintings, executed in a modified Cubist style, can be caustic and funny as well as serious and sombre. His themes—sometimes treated in series—included topics as diverse as Gandhi, Mother Teresa, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the British Raj, and motifs of Indian urban and rural life. In September 2020, his painting titled “Voices”, auctioned for a record $2.5 million.
The paintings are set to go up for auction for the first time on 12 June in India's financial capital, Mumbai.