Biography
Manjari Sihare-Sutin joined the Modern and Contemporary South Asian Department at Sotheby’s in 2015. Throughout her tenure, Sihare-Sutin has consistently innovated, focusing her curatorial and sales expertise to expand the global reach of modern and contemporary South Asian art.
Sihare-Sutin’s sales are comprehensive explorations of art in the region, bringing both known and fresh artists to market with exceptional results. From March 2022 to March 2023, the department achieved a total of 40 world auction records. In addition to major biannual sales, Sihare-Sutin spearheaded the department’s first online auction in 2017, A Lyrical Line: Paintings & Drawings by Francis Newton Souza, and two selling exhibitions, The Great Within: Photographs Of India And The British Raj In The 19th Century in 2018 and Crafting Geometry: Abstract Art from South and West Asia in 2020.
As specialist and head of sale, Sihare-Sutin advises a span of international and domestic clients and works extensively with both public and private institutions. Her consultation has contributed to significant departmental growth worldwide.
Since 2021, the annual March sale in New York has achieved an over 90% sell-through rate. The March 2022 auction registered a total of $9.6 million – far exceeding its $6.7 million high estimate and marking the highest auction total for the department in seven years. March 2023 saw an over 200% increase above the pre-sale low estimate for total lots sold. Bulls by Maqbool Fida Husain made the world auction record for the artist in this sale.
She brings a unique perspective to her role at Sotheby’s based on her background working with leading artists, curators, institutions and major donors such as Rina Banerjee, Vivan Sundaram, Nilima Sheikh, the Lalit Kala Akademi, Goethe Institut, Gallery Espace, the Savara Foundation for the Arts, and Saffronart.
Prior to joining Sotheby’s, Sihare-Sutin held the position of Curatorial Manager for Queens Museum, New York where she helped plan, implement and present over twenty international art exhibitions including Citizens of the World: Cuba in Queens/Cuban Contemporary (2013), Art from the Shelley & Donald Rubin Private Collection (2013), 13 Most Wanted Men: Andy Warhol and the 1964 World’s Fair (2014) and After Midnight: Indian Modernism to Contemporary India 1947/1997 (2015), among others.
Sihare-Sutin holds two graduate degrees, a master’s degree in Art History from the National Museum Institute, New Delhi and a master’s degree in Visual Arts Administration from New York University, New York.
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