Saffronart's upcoming auction of Indian Modern Art is not about breaking records, it's about breaking new ground. The benchmark of this auction is not going to be a new artist entering the coveted crore bracket, it's perhaps going to be selling the masterpieces in multiples of a crore.

The masters in question are the usual suspects - SH Raza, Tyeb Mehta, MF Hussain, VS Gaitonde and Akbar Padamsee to name a few.

The top five are;

• SH Raza's work called Climat that is estimated to sell between Rs 3.5 and 4.5 crore.
• Following close is this work by Tyeb Mehta that's estimated to sell between Rs three to four crore.
• Close enough is this large canvas by M F Hussain that can be yours for anywhere between Rs two and three crore.
• A rare work by V S Gaitonde is estimated to between Rs 1.8 and 2.2 crore.
• And finally, a piece of work by Akbar Padamsee can be yours for anywhere between Rs 1.5 and two crore.

So with such a stellar list, money is no criteria.

“I think if we look back in time a little bit to 2003, we see at that point it was really the hundred thousands dollars threshold. But some hovering around the 50 lakh threshold, we were looking for artists to cross. But I think that has moved up rapidly that we begin seeing in September 2005 onwards, we are talking on the top end of the million-dollar threshold where the four and a half crore benchmark if you will,” says Director, Saffronart.com, Minal Vazirani.

The auction begins online on December 6 and will end on December 7. And if you want to participate, you simply need to log on to saffronart.com.