kolkata bangalorebased auctioneer bid hammer has sold 46 of its 189 lots in its recent auction of modern and contemporary paintings and works of art while its total sale of paintings is placed at rs 278 crore the artworks have fetched around rs 68 lakh mf husains shiva has swung the highest price among paintings at rs 3973 lakh as a startup auction house our performance at our firstever auction in bangalore is fairly satisfactory 46 of the lots were sold resulting in total sales of 33 in value terms 8 of the lots sold above the upper estimate and 69 of them went between the lower and upper estimates 60 of lots were picked up through commissioned bidding the rest were bought out over the telephone mr maher dadha chairman and managing director of bid hammer told et dwelling on the buyer composition he said bangalore and chennai covered 55 of the sales followed by buyers from the middle east at 29 and mumbai which brought 7 of the collectors the remaining buyers participated from other parts of india and the us spain and australiawith mf husains shiva selling for rs 3973 lakh b prabhas untitled oil on canvas was picked up for rs 2746 lakh jamini roys last supper rs 2337 lakh yusuf arakkals untitled oil rs 1343 lakh and km adimoolams reflex rs 584 lakh at the same time arindam chatterjees untitled mixed media on paper was placed at rs 379 lakh and rekha raos kite season in the bracket of rs 146 lakhartists introduced in the auction included g s shenoy baren basu r raja pratibha dakoji and k k raghava in the works of art section a colonial indian silver chandelier was acquired for rs 42 lakh we have taken the initiative to promote art operating out of bangalore and the south which have been rightly or wrongly branded as conservative in comparison to mumbai delhi our first auction has reinforced the belief that we will be able to perform much better in our subsequent sales mr dadha said