This is a zara-hatke auction
On March 26, works by Raja Ravi Varma, Akbar Padamsee, Jitish Kallat and Atul Dodiya among others will be auctioned at a Prabhadevi venue. While Mumbai has seen paintings by these celebrated artists go under the hammer before, what's different about this auction by Saffronart is that it is the first time that the Income Tax Department has reached out to a professional auction house to conduct an art auction on their behalf.

"Following a selection process conducted by the Tax Recovery Officer, Central-3, Mumbai... we were appointed to conduct the sale," said Saffronart's CEO and co-founder Dinesh Vazirani.