MAXING THE BULL OF DISRUPTION DINESH & MINAL VAZIRANI

AUCTIONS DOWN, THE VAZIRANIS HAVE AN EXHILARATING STORY TO SHARE, AS YOUNG ART COLLECTORS WHO NOTICED THAT INDIA NEEDED AN AUCTION ECOSYSTEM, ENTIRELY MISSING IN THE MID-90S. HELLO! MEETS THE TIRELESS PURVEYORS OF SAFFRONART, DECODING THEIR PHENOMENAL JOURNEY AND PANDEMIC PIVOTS

- SANGEETA WADDHWANI

Their first auction of 2022 touched sales of Rs 104.1 crore. Ask Dinesh and Minal Vazirani how they celebrated this milestone, and they unanimously say, “Sleep! We were exhausted!”

But then, the Vaziranis never succumbed to the pandemic curveball. They had their eyes and ears firmly rooted to the ground and simply took the Tyeb Mehta-style bull by the proverbial horns… And triumphed!

HEADLINING AUCTIONS… A TIMELESS TRADITION

Let’s rewind to their last ‘old normal‘ auction event. Saffronart bid and won the government tender to auction fugitive Nirav Modi’s art assets… twice over!

“One auction was for the Department of Income Tax and the other for the Enforcement Directorate,” shares Dinesh.

One clearly remembers the rich assembly of art on display, featuring all the possible blue-chip names among the Progressive, modern and contemporary artists of India.

“It was just before the pandemic… A few weeks later, we were in lockdown. And few know it was almost cancelled because Nirav Modi, through a stay order, tried to use his son’s name against the ED, claiming ‘these paintings belong to my son, not to me, so you can’t sell them’. So there was suspense, till the court gave us the go-ahead. It was a really unique experience because one, I’ve never seen so many paparazzi outside our gallery (he laughs heartily), and two, it felt good to actually recover money for the Government of India.”

‘ZOOMING’ INTO RELEVANCE