Five Raja Ravi Varma works auctioned as NFTs

In a first, celebrated painter and artist Raja Ravi Varma’s lithographs were auctioned as unique digitised tokens, or non-fungible tokens (NFTs), recently. The auction was held on an online art marketplace RtistiQ in partnership with arts foundation Gallery G, and Raja Ravi Varma Heritage Foundation, both based in Bengaluru.

Seven of his works were auctioned in the past week. Five sold well above the reserve price of $999 (approx Rs 74,600), all lithographs of Indian gods and goddesses. The ‘Lakshmi’ lithograph bagged the highest bid at $2,150 (approx Rs 1.6 lakh).

Two of his iconic paintings, also considered national treasures, remained unsold. ‘The Coquette’ depicts a lady holding a gooseberry or lemon in her hand, decked in south Indian jewels. The ‘Reclining Nair Lady’ shows a young woman in 19th century Kerala relaxing with a book as a maid cools her down with a palm leaf fan. These were priced at $74,999 (approx Rs 56 lakh) and $63,999 (approx Rs 48 lakh) respectively.

Also up for auction was a 33-minute long film on Ravi Varma Press accompanied by a set of photographs of sections of Kilimanoor Palace, the birthplace of Raja Ravi Varma. Pegged at $6,999 (over Rs 5 lakh), it could not meet the reserved price.

Raja Ravi Varma believed that art should not be limited by geographical boundaries and so he would be pleased to see his works tokenised now, believes his great great granddaughter and chairperson of his eponymous foundation, Rukmini Varma.

While she admits she doesn’t understand the nitty-gritty of NFT auctions, she feels Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings and prints should live on the digital form too, befitting of the current times.

On the one hand, there is much excitement related to NFTs, on the other, it is seen with an equal amount of skepticism, especially by the art circle. Instances of artworks being copied and sold as fake NFTs have already rocked the digital world and concerns are being raised about the lack of safeguards for the original items.

“There are always critics and skeptics around... We’re not afraid to fall or fail along the way. It’s all part of growth and life,” says Gitanjali Maini, founder-director of Gallery G, over email.

Raja Ravi Varma’s works have always seen excellent traditional auction or sale results, she explains why they decided to test NFT waters.

Or was it perhaps a step towards attracting a new segment of buyers? Gitanjali says they don’t cater to any particular clientele and adds, “Art has to be for all — if you don’t wish to own a physical work but only want a digital version of it, why not?”

A thousand people from India, UAE, Singapore, and the US participated in the auction, the team says.