An oil painting by V S Gaitonde estimated over $ 2 million will lead Sotheby's Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art sale in New York this March, the auction house said today.
"Gaitonde's ethereal "Painting No. 3", a major work of the artist, which he exhibited during one of his earliest shows in New York in the 1960s has been sourced from an important American collection," auctioneers said in a statement.
The sale is set to be held on March 19 this year as part of the Asian Art sale in New York.
The painting captures a pivotal moment in the globally celebrated artist's career, when he turned away from his earlier geometric works and began to experiment with using a paint roller and palette knife.
Gaitonde is hugely celebrated internationally, with one of his works fetching a record Rs 23.7 crore at the December 2013 inaugural Christie's auction in Mumbai.
Previously, a Gaitonde work headlined the Amaya collection by Sotheby's in New York in March 2013.
The artist's 1962 work "Painting No. 1" was also top lot at Sotheby's Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art in London and was sold for $ 1.1 million on June 11 last year.
The abstract artist, who died in the year 2001, produced very few works, ensuring those rare pieces that appear at auction are in great demand, especially those from the 1960s, when he was considered to be at the peak of his career.
Gaitonde is also the subject of a major solo retrospective, which opens this year at the Guggenheim Museum, New York in October. He becomes one of the first Modern Indian artist to be honoured with a retrospective in the United States.
