Bold strokes: Domestic sales of Indian art double after pandemic

Record bids at auctions show the country's rich clearly love modern masters

An auction in Mumbai earlier this month broke a few records. Of the total sales of Rs 181 crore, an acrylic on canvas by Sayed Haider Raza, titled “Gestation” (1989), fetched a whopping Rs 51.75 crore, becoming the most expensive Indian artwork ever sold. Francis Newton Souza and Tyeb Mehta’s works also invited record-breaking bids.
 

In 2021, Astaguru’s online auction of Indian modern art made the news for its white glove sale (where every item on auction is bought) amid the pandemic-induced economic slowdown that year. Such sales are perhaps the most emphatic evidence of the rising Indian interest in