'More people willing to pay more money for Indian artworks'

In March 2023, Sotheby's South Asian Art, a division which primarily focuses on the Indian art market, attracted $22 million in bidding with 84% of lots selling above estimates. An important piece in the collection was a Maqbool Fida Husain artwork titled Bulls which had a winning bid of $2.7 million, or ₹23 crore.

- Varuni Khosla

In its most recent sale, the British auction house saw similar, promising results as buyers lined up for Indian artworks.

The auction, which concluded last week, had a 99% sellthrough rate, with a Manjit Bawa painting selling for about ₹20 crore, creating a world record for the artist.

The entire auction raked in a strong $9.9 million, or about 284.3 crore, twice its pre-sale estimate, which also included a work by Rabindranath Tagore that fetched $772,382 and one by Bhupen Khakhar that got $1.8 million.

India's art market has never looked better. This year alone, over 150 crore worth of artworks have sold at auctions in India and around the world.