The other auction to be held on August 22 is equally interesting. At Christie’s Mumbai office, Dhanraj Mahal, Colaba, about 20 modern and contemporary works of art donated by artists, galleries and collectors to support the Library of Bengali Literature, published by Columbia University Press, will be auctioned. The idea is to edit an open-ended bilingual collection of 1000 years of the texts of Bengal, a territory located around the Bay of Bengal and Kolkata situated between Bangladesh and West Bengal in India.
The project is similar to the Loeb Classical Library, started in 1911 at Harvard University Press, which now has more than 500 entries devoted to preserving the writings of Greek and Latin antiquity.
The editors have established a working list of 50 volumes, but in fact, this project is to be seen as open-ended and entries will be welcomed from all sources, on all kinds of subjects and researched as well as edited to the highest standards of the Columbia University Press.
The first two volumes are ready to be published as soon as funds are secured.
There will be a special section of the auction that will feature works donated to Columbia University Press by artists, galleries and collectors to raise funds for this project. These include paintings, sculptures and prints by Jamini Roy, Gopal Ghose, Jogen Chowdhury, Rina Banerjee, Raqs Media Collective, Rana Begum, Naeem Mohaiemen, Tayeba Begum Lipi and Ayesha Sultana, among others.
