A glowing golden canvas that is layered with delicate shapes and textures, radiating calm and vitality. Vasudeo Santu Gaitonde’s untitled 1971 painting was the highlight of a recent Saffronart auction in Delhi that set a record by selling for $40.2 million (£29.9 million), the largest amount ever paid for South Asian art.
Gaitonde’s painting alone became the second most expensive in India when it sold for $7.57 million, almost three times its estimated value. An already successful Indian art auction season gained momentum from the bidding.
A few days later, Francis Newton Souza’s landscape painting, Houses in Hampstead, became India’s third highest-grossing painting when it sold at Sotheby’s for just a little less than Gaitonde’s. Earlier this year, MF Husain’s Untitled (Gram Yatra) sold for an incredible $13.8 million, breaking the previous record for the most expensive painting in India.
Saffronart’s 25th anniversary was celebrated with a packed house, fierce bidding, and a unique “white glove” outcome: every lot sold. One spectator even claimed that some people were “squabbling” over artwork. People thought we were insane when we first started in 2000. Who’s going to buy art online?” “Said Mr. Vazirani.
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