2023: THE YEAR INDIAN ART CAME INTO ITS OWN

Masterpieces worth more than ₹1,000 crore have been sold in India and around the world since January

- Varuni Khosla

• Around 40% of buyers at Sotheby's Asian art auctions are now from India or other parts of South Asia, with the rest being collectors of Indian origin globally.

In 1937, Amrita Sher-Gil, an Indo-Hungarian artist, painted The Story Teller. The oil-on-canvas painting depicts an intimate rural scene, with village women huddled together in a courtyard, their faces relaxed and smiles easy. The cosy setting also features cows and a calf, a dog lazing under a charpai, a little boy, and a man in a doorway. That November, Sher-Gil sold the work to Badruddin Tyabji Jr., a diplomat bearing the same name as his grandfather, the third president of the Indian National Congress, at an exhibition in Faletti’s Hotel, Lahore.

Over the next eight decades, The Story Teller made its way to other owners before finally coming back into the art market this September, at an auction held by Mumbai–based art gallery SaffronArt. And there, the masterpiece fetched a stunning ₹61.8 crore, becoming the most expensive Indian artwork sold to date.

It isn’t just Sher-Gil’s work that has drawn such a commanding price this year. Sayed Haider Raza’s Gestation and FN Souza’s Hunger have also broken records, as have works by other artists. Indeed, 2023 could be the biggest year ever for modern Indian art. Rough estimates suggest that leading auction houses AstaGuru, Christie’s, Pundole’s, Saffron Art and Sotheby’s have held sales of modern Indian art totalling more than $138 million, or ₹1,150 crore, since January, with more auctions to come. Beyond the auction circuit, galleries, too, have been experiencing a record breaking year.