The art house plans an auction this month, proceeds of which would be used to redeem the art fund. However, Osian officials claim that a major chunk of the redemption amount would be paid before the auction

After months of delay in redemption of the Osian Art Fund, the art house would be organising an auction of selected paintings this month to redeem the Fund. While a major proportion of the redemption amount is likely to be paid before the auction, the proceeds from the auction are likely to be used pay the remaining amount.

“The redemption of the art fund is nearly complete and all unit-holders would have received Rs90 out of Rs111.72 before the auction,” stated a company official from Osian in a mail to Moneylife. On being questioned whether the proceeds from the auction would be further used to pay the remaining redemption amount, the official said, “The auction will help us redeem the Fund.”

Osian will be holding an auction named the ‘Masterpiece Series’ on 20 March 2010 in Mumbai. The auction will have artworks of famous artists like Raja Ravi Varma, MF Husain, Akbar Padmasee, Tyeb Mehta and Bikash Bhattacharjee.

Moneylife had earlier reported that some investors had received their first payments, but a number of them still await the same. Osian has been able to shell out a part-payment of around 75% to 85% of the total amount to some of its investors. The company claimed that the payment was 90% of the invested capital.

Though the company started this process way back in December 2009, a number of investors still await the first payment. Those who have received the first payment are also apprehensive on whether they will receive the remaining amount. In one of the last notes sent by Osian to all its investors in December 2009, it claimed that the first instalments would be completed in the month of December itself.

Officials from Osian had also admitted to difficulties in selling some of the artwork inventories. The Osian Art Fund was a 36-month close-ended scheme launched in July 2006. It made a quiet exit and at that time company officials claimed that the returns would be around 5% per annum. As ambiguity on the final net-asset value continues, the investor is clueless about what the exact total redemption amount would be. As of July 2006, the fund’s total corpus was Rs102.40 crore and it had 656 unit-holders across 39 cities.