Certainly, no other artist was allowed to get away by selling a painting that topped Husain's price. He'd arrange private sales to announce that he was still India's most expensive painter, even controversially striking a deal at Rs 100 crore for 100 paintings that caught the imagination of Indians (though collectors shuddered at what this might mean in terms of 'quality' - it was the equivalent of selling apples by the kilo, rather than getting value by converting them into, say, apple tarts).
Husain is in Dubai sporadically; the rest of the time he is in London where he's reportedly working on a particularly attractive commission for the Mittals (eat your heart out shakha-wallahs).
"Four days after Lehman Brothers collapsed," he tells me, "there was a sale by a British artist called Damien Hirst - have you heard of him?" he asks sharply.
"He is almost as well known as you, Husain saaab," I say.
Husain is not sure whether he should be flattered. "Yes, well he had an auction at Christie's where he hoped to sell two years’ works for $60 million, but he made $200 million."
"Two hundred and eleven million," I tease him. But his point is:
"Art thrives at the time of crisis," he says.
Image: M F Husain gives art lessons to children of the 'SOS Children's Villages of India' in Bombay on 16 December 16, 2003
Photographs: Sebastian D'Souza/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: Husain on Ghajagamini
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