How the market prices a Souza, why oils and works on paper are different markets, and the checks to make before you buy, sell or insure one.
ArtValue compares your work with public auction results and market data. Its coverage of the Indian auction houses (Saffronart, AstaGuru, Pundole's) is limited, so for this market treat the estimate as a first orientation, not as a price or an authentication.
Period and place. Born in Goa in 1924, Souza was a founder of the Progressive Artists' Group, moved to London in 1949 and to New York in 1967, and died in Mumbai in 2002. The London years of the 1950s produced the oils that define his market at the top.
Medium. Oil paintings and works on paper (ink and pen drawings, watercolours) are two separate markets. Ink drawings exist in large numbers and are a frequent source of forgery and wrong attribution.
Subject. Heads and faces, nudes, landscapes and cityscapes, and religious themes are the recognised subjects. Strength of image, scale and condition separate a major work from a minor one.
Later sales, including at Christie's in 2024, are reported at other levels; this page does not repeat figures we could not source directly. Check the latest sale before you rely on any number. Prices are as reported, usually including the buyer's premium. 1 crore = 10 million rupees. Isolated results are not a valuation of your work: price depends on period, medium, size, quality and provenance, and sale records move over time.
Forgeries of leading Indian modernists are a documented problem. Examples: in January 2009 S. H. Raza opened an exhibition of his work in Delhi and publicly said that most of the roughly 30 paintings on show were not by him; the show was cancelled the same day (ArtDaily/Artron, 20 January 2009). In September 2025 India's Enforcement Directorate filed a charge sheet before a special court in Mumbai alleging that 11 fake paintings had been sold as works by Husain, Raza, Manjit Bawa and Souza for about Rs 17.9 crore (The Week (PTI), 24 September 2025). These are allegations and cases, not a statement about any particular work.
India's Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972 makes it unlawful for anyone other than the Central Government, or an authority or agency it has authorised, to export an "antiquity" or an "art treasure" (section 3). Exporting or attempting to export one is punishable by imprisonment of six months to three years and a fine (section 25). An "art treasure" is a work of art that the Central Government has declared as such by notification, and no such declaration can be made while the artist is alive. Source: Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972 (text).
Works by nine deceased artists were declared national art treasures by Central Government notifications of 1976 and 1979, the so-called "Navaratna": Abanindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore, Amrita Sher-Gil, Nandalal Bose, Jamini Roy, Raja Ravi Varma, Nicholas Roerich and Sailoz Mookherjea (Khaitan & Co, Chambers Art & Cultural Property Law 2025, India). F. N. Souza is not among those nine, according to the sources below. The Government can still declare further works by deceased artists, so check the current notifications and take legal advice before exporting a major work.
Other rules can apply as well (customs and import duties in the destination country, cultural property rules, taxes). This is general information, not legal advice.
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