A painting by Raja Ravi Varma has set a new auction record for the work of an Indian artist, signaling continued strength at the top end of the market.
Yashoda and Krishna (ca. 1890s) sold for $17.9 million at Saffronart in Delhi on April 1, surpassing the previous benchmark for Indian painting at auction, held by M.F. Husain’s Untitled (Gram Yatra), which sold for $13.8 million at Christie’s New York last year and was purchased by ARTnews Top 200 Collector Kiran Nadar. The result also comfortably eclipses Varma’s prior record of $4.5 million, set in 2023
The buyer was pharmaceutical billionaire Cyrus Poonawalla, founder of the Serum Institute of India, according to Artsy.
Characterizing Varma as “indisputably remains the most influential pioneer of early modern Indian art,” Saffronart called Yashoda and Krishna “one of the artist’s most accomplished works,” in its lot description. “In this painting,” the essay continues, “he interprets the universally resonant theme of maternal love through the mythological figures of the infant Lord Krishna and his foster mother Yashoda, a subject strongly embedded in Indian culture and devotional sentiment.”
The sale also underscores how concentrated this market has become at the very top. Works by Varma and a handful of other artists are effectively barred from leaving India under national heritage laws, meaning the best material likely circulates within a relatively closed ecosystem. That restriction has done little to dampen demand and may, according to the numbers, be intensifying it.
