Chart the Art

Late last month, all eyes were on New York's Rockefeller Center when the hammer came down for Christie's latest South Asian modern and contemporary art sale.

- VAISHALI DAR

Late last month, all eyes were on New York's Rockefeller Center when the hammer came down for Christie's latest South Asian modern and contemporary art sale. The entire auction saw strong bidding, but what stole the show was an untitled work (Gram Yatra) by celebrated artist M.F. Husain that was sold for over ₹118.7 crore (about $13.8 million)—becoming the most expensive modern Indian painting to be ever sold.

The painting was reportedly bought by renowned art collector and philanthropist Kiran Nadar. Incidentally, the sum paid for Gram Yatra (1954)—a mural-sized painting that spans almost 14 feet across 13 vignettes—is nearly double that of the previous record-holder, Amrita Sher-Gil's The Story Teller (1937), which fetched about ₹61.8 crore ($7.4 million) at a Saffronart auction in Mumbai in 2023.