Music conductor Zubin Mehta’s baton, to be autographed by the maestro, was auctioned at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Bombay on August 19 to coincide with Mehta conducting the Symphony Orchestra of India — ( SOI) at the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre. "A baton in the hands of maestro Zubin Mehta is not just a baton. Renowned for his meticulous stick technique, the maestro has churned music out of sheets containing symphonies of Mozart and Mahler, Bach and Beethoven to command world famous orchestras, in many an unforgettable concert. The baton has been both, a participant in and witness to the maestro’s artistry. From a conductor par excellence what could be a more prized gift for a connoisseur?” stated the auction catalog.
Above: Zubin Mehta and his baton (image for representation purpose); above r: self portrait by Dr Homi Bhabha
While the reserve price for the bid was set at Rs 10 lakh (USD 12,127), plus 12% GST, it was finally sold for Rs 50 lakh (USD 60,638), stated Dadiba Pundole whose auction house Pundole’s had organized the event to raise funds for NCPA. The auction that included artefacts and paintings by Dr Homi Bhabha, as also other patrons of Indian music succeeded in raising Rs 2.49 crore (USD 301,977), the proceeds of which were meant for the "education of the promising and the underserved which remains a key area of our work at the NCPA as well as procuring musical instruments for the SOI.”
"The NCPA’s labor of love to sustain the performing arts has had patrons from a spectrum of areas and sometimes we have had the delight of finding our supporters in artistes themselves,” noted the auction booklet. "To maintain an organization like the NCPA...is expensive…and certainly not made up through box office (receipts). Apart from the cost of the actual performance, the infrastructural cost of maintaining our venues as well as technical, marketing and genre-advising staff is significant,” NCPA chairman Khushroo Suntook was quoted in the catalog.