Artist Identification
Identify the artist of the subject work and establish the appropriate comparable artist set.
PAINTING MARKET RESEARCH • COMPARABLE EVIDENCE
The Painting Comparable Evidence Sources — Where the Defensible Evidence Comes From
A defensible painting valuation depends on more than an observed asking price. It requires identifiable, traceable and relevant auction evidence matched to the artist, period, medium, size, condition and provenance of the subject work.
A2Z Valuers researches international and domestic auction records to establish the most relevant comparable evidence for the valuation assignment and documents the basis on which those comparables are selected and applied.
EVIDENCE INDEX
06
Principal Auction
Evidence Sources INTERNATIONAL + DOMESTIC
Evidence Sources INTERNATIONAL + DOMESTIC
01
INTERNATIONAL • PRIMARY REFERENCE
Christie’s South Asian Art — the international peak reference
Christie’s South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art sales in London and New York are the primary international reference for the Indian painting market’s top tier. Christie’s 19 March 2025 Husain Untitled (Gram Yatra) at ₹119 crore is the current India auction peak; Christie’s sale catalogues and post-sale archives are publicly accessible and publicly verifiable.
STRENGTHS
Most comprehensive international archive for top-tier
Indian modern and contemporary
ACCESSIBILITY
Searchable archive with artist and
lot-level information
APPLICABLE CATEGORIES
PAG • Modern Indian Masters • Bengal School •
Mughal & Rajput • Company School
PAG BLUE-CHIP • MODERN INDIAN • HERITAGE ART
02
INTERNATIONAL • SECONDARY REFERENCE
Sotheby’s South Asian Art and Islamic Art — the secondary international reference
Sotheby’s South Asian Modern and Contemporary sales in London and New York provide extensive evidence for Indian modern and contemporary paintings, while Sotheby’s Arts of the Islamic World provides important records for Mughal miniatures and pre-modern Indian art.
STRENGTHS
Comprehensive Mughal and Indo-Persian archive
CATALOGUING
Strong Bengal School and modern Indian
masters records
APPLICABLE CATEGORIES
Mughal & Rajput • Company School • Bengal School •
Modern Indian Masters • PAG
MUGHAL • INDO-PERSIAN • MODERN INDIAN ART
03
INTERNATIONAL • THIRD REFERENCE
Bonhams Islamic and South Asian Art — the third international reference
Bonhams maintains active Islamic and South Asian Art sales in London. Its records provide useful international evidence particularly for historical Indian works, miniature paintings and colonial-period material.
STRENGTHS
Mughal and Rajput miniature paintings
SPECIAL COVERAGE
Company School natural history, topographical
works and portraits
APPLICABLE CATEGORIES
Mughal & Rajput • Company School •
Some Modern Indian Masters • Some PAG
MINIATURES • COMPANY SCHOOL • COLONIAL ART
04
INDIA • DOMESTIC PEAK REFERENCE
Pundole’s — India’s domestic peak reference
Pundole’s — Mumbai’s oldest and most prestigious domestic auction house — is a primary domestic reference for paintings, particularly PAG and Indian modern works that trade primarily within the Indian collector market.
STRENGTHS
Deep Indian domestic collector base
MARKET COVERAGE
Strong PAG, Bengal School and
modern Indian records
WHY DOMESTIC MATTERS
Indian-market comparables can be more directly
applicable than overseas auction records
PAG • INDIAN MODERN • DOMESTIC MARKET
05
INDIA • DIGITAL ARCHIVE
Saffronart — the digital archive reference
Saffronart is India’s largest online auction platform; established in 2000, it maintains a comprehensive searchable digital archive of Indian painting auction results. Its searchable format makes it particularly useful for identifying multiple comparable works across an artist’s oeuvre.
STRENGTHS
Systematic search across PAG, Indian modern
and contemporary categories
OPERATIONAL VALUE
Rapid identification of artist-period-medium
comparable works
APPLICABLE CATEGORIES
PAG • Modern Indian Masters • Contemporary Indian •
Some Bengal School
DIGITAL ARCHIVE • LOT RESEARCH • COMPARABLE SEARCH
06
INDIA • DOMESTIC COMPLEMENT
AstaGuru — the Mumbai-based domestic complement
AstaGuru is a Mumbai-based auction house with strong coverage of PAG and modern Indian art. Its physical auction format provides a useful complement to digital auction research.
STRENGTHS
PAG blue-chip records and contemporary Indian art
MARKET
Established Indian collector base
APPLICABLE CATEGORIES
PAG • Modern Indian Masters • Contemporary Indian
PAG BLUE-CHIP • MODERN INDIAN • CONTEMPORARY
EVIDENCE SELECTION FRAMEWORK
The Comparable Evidence Selection Methodology
Auction records are not interchangeable. The relevance of a comparable depends on how closely it corresponds to the subject work and the market in which that work actually trades.
COMPARABLE
SELECTION
06
AnalyticalSELECTION
Filters
Period Matching
Identify the period within the artist’s career and select comparables from the same or closely relevant period.
Medium Analysis
Identify the medium and select works in the same or closely equivalent medium.
Work-Level Similarity
Compare size, subject, condition and provenance strength within the artist-period-medium set.
Multiple-Comparable Analysis
Identify the strongest evidence set and cite the multiple-comparable median, typically using 4–6 relevant comparables.
Evidence Documentation
Document each comparable with the auction house, sale date, lot number and hammer price or sale price.
THE DUAL-SOURCE APPROACH
International Evidence Meets Domestic Market Reality
INTERNATIONAL MARKET
Christie’s + Sotheby’s
Where the work has traded primarily internationally, international auction records form the primary evidence base.
VS
DOMESTIC MARKET
Pundole’s + Saffronart + AstaGuru
Where the work has traded primarily in India, domestic auction records are given primary relevance.
Where both sources are available,
the certificate cites both, with the primary comparables
specifically identified.
PAINTING VALUATION • COMPARABLE EVIDENCE
Need a Defensible Painting Valuation?
Discuss the artist, period, medium, valuation purpose and required statutory context with the valuation team. A2Z Valuers can determine the appropriate comparable evidence framework for your engagement.