M.F. Husain’s Painting Shatters Records At Christie’s With $13.8 Million Sale
Photos: Christies (Right,) Photo: Wikipedia (Left)
India-West Staff Reporter
NEW YORK, NY – A lost masterpiece by M.F. Husain, hidden from public view for nearly seven decades, has now made history. Untitled (Gram Yatra), a monumental 1954 painting by the modernist icon, sold for a staggering $13.8 million at Christie’s on March 19, setting a new benchmark for modern Indian art at auction.
Art collector and philanthropist Kiran Nadar, founder of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, rumors say, placed the winning bid, eclipsing fierce competition at the packed auction house inside Rockefeller Center. Christie’s officially listed the buyer as an “unnamed institution,” but reports suggest the work will soon find a home in Nadar’s collection, marking a significant moment for Indian art’s global recognition.
The final price shattered expectations—far exceeding the pre-sale estimate of $2.5 million–$3.5 million—and more than quadrupled Husain’s previous auction record of $3.1 million, set just last September. It also eclipsed the former record for modern Indian art, which was held by Amrita Sher-Gil’s The Story Teller (1937), sold for $7.4 million in Mumbai last year.
RESURFACES
Spanning nearly 14 feet in length, Untitled (Gram Yatra) is a sweeping visual narrative of Indian village life in the years following independence. The composition unfolds in 13 distinct vignettes, capturing Husain’s vision of rural India as the foundation of a newly sovereign nation.
The painting’s journey to the auction block and potentially back to India, was more than a decade in the making. Originally acquired in 1954 by Norwegian surgeon and art collector Dr. Leon Elias Volodarsky while he was stationed in New Delhi with the World Health Organization, the work was later donated to Oslo University Hospital in 1964. For decades, it remained tucked away in a private neuroscience corridor, inaccessible to the public, ART news recounted.
The proceeds of the auction will fund a new medical training center in Volodarsky’s name.
