Christie’s London Sale Confirms Growing Appetite for South Asian Art
Christie’s first London sale of South Asian modern and contemporary art in seven years totaled £18.9 million ($23.9 million), with all 93 lots from a single private collection selling above presale estimates. Ganesh Pyne led the auction: The Fisherman (1979) sold for £3.8 million ($4.9 million), about 10 times its high estimate, while Under the Red Cloud (1970) and Woman the Serpent (1975) each realized £2.4 million. The sale set records for Abanindranath Tagore, whose 1922 portrait of Mahatma Gandhi sold for just over £1 million against a £50,000 high estimate, and for Kattingeri Krishna Hebbar, whose Untitled (Gulmohar Tree) (1962) reached £698,500 and Untitled (Woman Making Chapatis) (1959) made £406,400. Advisor Varun Kaji said the results suggest blue-chip Indian modern artists have been undervalued relative to Western counterparts and reflect broad collector appetite rather than a short-lived spike.
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