Thiruvananthapuram: The first death anniversary of veteran congress leader and former Kerala chief minister K. Karunakaran yesterday was marked by a dash of colour.
At the Taj Hotel in the state capital, one of the two still surviving paintings by one-time kingmaker in Indian politics was auctioned for Rs510,000 (Dh35,520) and the other was presented to his daughter Padmaja Venugopal for which she offered an undisclosed amount to Kerala Lalitha Kala (Fine Arts) Academy which put the paintings up for auction.
His fans and Congressmen in Kerala generally know that Karunakaran had plunged into Congress politics 70 years ago while he was a painting student at the Vocational Institute (now Fine Arts College) in Thrissur. But they realised that he was equally well versed in the art of painting as he was in power politics only when his works were exhibited for the auction.
A lawyer Premkumar, who appeared on behalf of his two clients — a non-resident Indian and a business man — won the auction. He, however, did not disclose the names of the successful bidders. When prodded, he said that he would disclose their name after getting their confirmation.
‘Priceless'
When the auction of the second painting started, Padmaja intervened and expressed her desire to get the work. The Academy official agreed but on condition that she should pay an amount equal to what the other painting had fetched.
A visibly shaken Padmaja told them: "This is a priceless piece of work of art for me and I am unable to assess a price of the painting. I am paying an amount which would not be lesser than what you demand." Finally, Academy President K.A. Francis handed over the painting to Padmaja. The two oil sketches, one a portrait of a bearded old man who was a regular model at the institute and the other a creative piece of a rickshaw puller in Thrissur city, reached Shekhar Ayyanthol, a painter and art collector, from a teacher at the Fine Arts College ten years ago.
He had shown the autographed paintings to Karunakaran and got them confirmed. As a re-conformation the veteran politician put his signature again on the paintings. (It is the painting on the rickshaw puller that was given to Padmaja.) Ayyanthol later handed over the paintings to the Chithra Kala Academy under the State government to preserve them. But the academy has auctioned them to raise funds to introduce a scholarship for art students.
