Christie’s Sees Record-Breaking Sale for Seven Indian Artists

Records fell for seven Indian artists at Christie's London in its sale titled Sublime Shadows: South Asian Art from a Distinguished Collection, held on June 11. The auction totaled $25.3m, soaring past its high estimate of $5.8m.

Ganesh Pyne led the record breakers when his 1979 painting The Fisherman, which sold for $5.13m. The sale beat the artist’s previous auction record by $2.61m, a 100% rise.

At the same sale, a portrait by Abanindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, The Spinner of a Nation’s Destiny (1922), sold $1.39m, establishing a new auction record for the artist who was an influential figure in the Bengal School.

Modernist painter Kattingeri Krishna Hebbar, whose work synthesized traditional Indian aesthetics with international movements, also achieved a record price when his 1962 work, Untitled (Gulmohar Tree), sold for $934,930.

Meanwhile, female artist Meera Mukherjee, who is best known for her bronze sculptures using the Dhokra lost-wax casting technique, realized a new auction record with her Untitled (Wheel Builders). The undated sculpture sold for $509,962.

Additional record prices were set for: Badri Narayan, whose undated still-life sold for $203,985, and Shanti Dave, whose 1971 work sold for $339,974.

Finally, a 1944 work on paper by the Indian activist-artist Chittoprasad Bhattacharya sold for a record price of $47,596.

Multiple records for Indian artists within a single week underscored the strength of the market for South Asian art, especially when they have a distinguished, albeit unnamed provenance.