A 35 x 28.25 inch oil painting by Raja Ravi Varma sold $167.2 crore at the Saffronart Spring Auction on Wednesday, making it the most expensive Indian painting sold at auction so far. The work, titled “Yashoda and Krishna,” was created by the famous Indian artist in the 1890s and bears his signature. “It shows the tremendous value of our culture, and the lengths collectors are willing to go to acquire such work,” Dinesh Vazirani, co-founder and CEO of Saffronart, said after the sale.
The painting was purchased by Cyrus S. Poonawalla, founder and managing director of the Pune-based Serum Institute of India.
“I am honored to have the opportunity to acquire, preserve and care for Raja Ravi Varma’s famous painting of Yashoda and Krishna. This national treasure deserves to be available for public viewing on a regular basis, and I will do my best to facilitate this moving forward,” a press release sent by Savronart quoted him as saying.
Raja Ravi Varma’s works are classified as national treasures and therefore not exportable, making the buyer an Indian collector.
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“It is a defining moment for the Indian art market. Raja Ravi Varma’s Yashoda and Krishna – a universal subject reminiscent of the Madonna and Christ, or any mother and child, and arguably the most famous and sought-after work, the Mona Lisa, in Indian art – not only set a new world record, but did so with conviction, more than double its minimum estimate of $80 crores, which is more than that $“These revenues have contributed to an increase of Rs 87.2 crore – an increase of over 100%,” said Ashish Anand, MD & CEO, DAG (formerly Delhi Art Gallery).
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Last March, a work by Maqbool Fida Hussain sold for a record $13.7 million (about $13.7 million). $118.7 crore) at Christie’s South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art auction in New York setting the world record for Indian art.
Sales of Raja Ravi Varma’s works exceeded the record by $49.2 lakh crore – an increase of over 40%.
