Rs 50-crore gaitonde painting goes missing from Nirlon house

Prominent south Mumbai-based investor Janak Mathuradas writes to the Worli police, saying he fears the painting has been stolen after spotting a "similar" artwork at a New York gallery
The police are probing the disappearance of a VS Gaitonde painting from Nirlon House, the Worli office of erstwhile textile and now real estate major Nirlon Ltd.
The complainant, businessman Janak Mathuradas, a prominent shareholder in Nirlon Ltd whose family is considered one of the most influential investors in Mumbai, feared that the painting could have been stolen after he saw a “similar" artwork at an exhibition in New York.
In a written complaint to the Worli Police Station, Mathuradas said the painting could be worth around Rs 50 crore, and adorned the walls of the Nirlon House boardroom. The complaint letter, a copy of which is in possession of this newspaper, said that the painting was created in 1960 and it was socialiteart connoisseur Poonam Bhagat who had advised the company to purchase it.
“In my capacity as a Nirlon Ltd shareholder, I have attended many meetings at the Nirlon House, and always marvelled at the paintings and artefact that adorned the boardroom. The most celebrated and certainly the most impressive of these paintings was a work by renowned abstract artist VS Gaitonde. We have learnt that the painting cannot be found now," Mathuradas's complaint said.
The complaint went on to say that all shareholders in the company needed to know the status of prized artworks acquired by the company. “Every shareholder has a right on the company's assets. As far as the Gaitonde painting is concerned, I have good enough reasons to believe that it has been stolen. I request you to investigate the same," the complaint said.
Mathuradas further said in his complaint that during a recent visit to New York, he came across a “similar painting" exhibited at an art gallery. “The police need to probe whether it is the same painting, and if it is, how did it reach New York," the complaint said.
Senior Inspector Virag Parkar from Worli Police Station confirmed Mathuradas's complaint. “We are probing the complaint," Parkar said.
Vasudeo Gaitonde was the first Indian contemporary painter whose work was sold for Rs 90 lakh at the 2005 Osians art auction in Mum bai, four years after his death. In 2013, one of Gaitonde's untitled painting sold for Rs 20 crore, setting a record for an Indian artist at Christie's debut auction in India.
While Poonam Bhagat refused to comment on her purported role in Nirlon buying the painting, officials at the Nirlon House said only their bosses were authorised to speak on the matter. Mirror tried contacting Kunal Sagar, Nirlon Ltd's non-executive director, but his staff said he was abroad.
Nirlon was launched in the late 1950s as a manufacturer of nylon filament yarn. By the late 1980s, the company was declared a sick unit. It later dabbled into rubber business after which it concentrated entirely on its real estate business.