It's Long Overdue' Boom in Demand for Modern and Contemporary Indian Art

For seven decades, the masterpiece had gathered dust as it hung in a private collection and then in the corridors of a Norwegian hospital. But last month, the monumental 13-panel 1954 painting Untitled (Gram Yatra) – one of the most significant pieces of modern South Asian art – sold for a record-breaking $13.8m (£10.7m) in New York.

- Hannah Ellis-Petersen

The sale of the painting, by Maqbool Fida Husain, one of India's most celebrated modern artists, achieved the highest sum paid for a piece of modern Indian art at auction – going for four times the estimated price. It also happened to be the most expensive artwork auctioned so far this year.

Indian – and more broadly South Asian – artists have long failed to receive the same recognition as their Western counterparts. Few were displayed in the world's great galleries and collections; international exhibitions celebrating their work have been scarce; and their presence at the world's biggest art fairs – the powerful drivers of today's art market – has been minimal.

Yet recently there have been signs that things are changing and Indian art – modern and contemporary – is having what many in the field have described as a "major moment".

Auction prices for prominent 20th-century Indian artists have consistently broken records over the past few years. Last year, according to the international online art broker Artsy, the demand for Indian artists increased more than for any other nationality.