New Delhi: Amrita Sher-Gil's "The Storyteller" breaks the world record for an Indian artist with Rs 61.8 crore in 2023. Followed by M F Husain clocking Rs 118 crore for "Gram Yatra" in 2025 and Raja Ravi Varma's "Yashoda and Krishna" auctioned at Rs 167.2 crore in 2026.
The records are tumbling every year as it were. If the numbers by the greats are staggering so are these by lesser known artists. Take, for instance, Asit Kumar Haldar's "Mother India" (Division of Bengal) that sold for Rs 2.07 crore against an estimate of approximately Rs 8-12 lakh, over 25 times its lower estimate, or Shanti Dave's Untitled (1971) that went for Rs 3.25 crore against an estimate of approximately Rs 32-45 lakh.