Rs. 61.8 Crore: Amrita Sher-Gil’s Painting Goes For A Record Sale (image: twitter.com/Saffronart)

Amrita Sher-Gil’s painting titled The Story Teller, fetched a record Rs. 61. 8 crore at Saffronart’s “Evening Sale: Modern Art” in New Delhi. The painting signed 1937, mark history as the most expensive Indian artwork to be sold in auction. It has surpassed Sayed Haider Raza’s Gestation, sold for ₹51.75 crore 10 days before.

“The sale of this particular work is an important milestone in the market. However, equally important, is the work itself—it is an exceptional painting as a cornerstone in Sher-Gil’s work as such. She is one of India’s national art treasures, and this type of work is quite rare to come across for sale,” said Minal Vazirani, the auction house’s co-founder said to Mint.

“The record price achieved by Amrita Sher-Gil’s ‘The Story Teller’ is an important milestone in the Indian art market and a testament to the artist’s immense skill and enduring legacy as one of India’s art treasures,” Dinesh Vazirani, CEO and co-founder of Saffronart said in a press statement.

The Evening Sale also achieved #worldrecords for “The Story Teller”, 1937, by Amrita Sher-Gil, which sold for Rs 61.8 crore, making it the highest value achieved for a work by the #artist in #auction worldwide and the most expensive #Indian #artwork sold in auction globally. pic.twitter.com/0MVbP0Uvbn

— Saffronart (@Saffronart) September 18, 2023

Hungarian-Indian painter, Amrita Sher-Gil, is considered as one of the notable avante-garde women artists of the early 20^th century. She is also called as pioneer of modern Indian art. Her themes are primarily focused on women, and some important titles in this regard are “Women on the Charpai”, “Three Girls”, “Young Girls”, and “Hill Women.”

Her works have been auctioned 84 times and placed under “non-exportable Indian art treasure’ category.

Born in Budapest, Hungary, to an Indian father and a Hungarian mother, Sher-Gil died at a young age of 28. In 1976, Archaeological Survey of India declared her as one of India’s nine “National Art Treasure” artists.

Other artworks auctioned on Saturday include Raza’s Earth (1986), Tyeb Mehta’s Red Figure, Akbar Padamsee’s Paysage (1961), and A. Ramachandran’s Autobiography of an Insect in the Lotus Pond (2000).