May 21, 2008

NEW YORK—LiveAuctioneers.com today announced its expansion into India through the addition of Bid & Hammer Fine Art Auctioneers to its list of international auction-house clients. The company has been chosen by Bid & Hammer to provide real-time Internet bidding services for its various Modern and Contemporary Indian art sales, beginning with its 101-lot Modern & Contemporary Indian Paintings & Works of Art sale on June 15.

The sale has a cross-section of works comprising paintings, drawings, serigraphs and sculptures from the modern Indian master artists as well as the cutting-edge contemporaries. Older works including Antonio Trindade's 1933 oil on canvas Female nude under shadow of leaf, J. Swaminathan’s 1960s oil on canvas Reckoning Totem, F. N Souza’s 1948 ink on paper Seated Nude and early works of A. R. Chughtai, Jogen Chowdhury, M. F. Pithawala, M. V. Dhurandhar and Jamini Roy will sell along with newer works by Sachida Nagdev (a 2004 triptych Destruction & Hope that was exhibited at the Hyogo Museum in Japan to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Kobe earthquake), Shipra Bhattacharya, Sudhansu Sutar and Ravi Kashi amongst a host of others.

India has proven to be the fastest growing wealth base in the Asia Pacific region with Bangalore being the up and coming artistic hub in the country after New Delhi and Mumbai. Today, Indian Modern & Contemporary art is slowly but surely making an impact on the world stage and Bid & Hammer paves the way for Indian art connoisseurs across the world to access Indian art directly from India.

“We are delighted to add Bid & Hammer to our roster of over 700 of the world’s finest auction houses, now spanning 13 countries. LiveAuctioneers looks forward to expanding the reach of Bid & Hammer’s future sales, bringing their tremendous collections of modern and contemporary Indian art and antiques to collectors worldwide,” stated LiveAuctioneers’ CEO Julian R. Ellison.”