Written by Vandana KalraNew Delhi | September 28, 2025 10:24 PM IST 4 min readThe cumulative sale at Saturday's auction was Rs 355.77 crore, with all 85 lots that were featured sold.Painted in 1970, when artist VS Gaitonde had already gained repute as an abstractionist, an untitled canvas in yellow with translucent layers of ochre and subdued floating forms has fetched a staggering Rs 67.08 crore, becoming the second most expensive Indian artwork sold at an auction.Garnering nearly three times its higher estimate, the oil on canvas came under the hammer at Saffronart’s 25th Anniversary live evening sale held in Delhi on Saturday.“Gaitonde has always been at the top. He held the record for the highest price for an Indian artwork for many years, so it’s only natural that he will reach those heights again. He wasn’t very prolific and there are only a limited number of his works, several of which are already in prominent private collections and museums, so naturally his prices will continue to rise. Today, it is extremely difficult to acquire a good Gaitonde,” said Dinesh Vazirani, Saffronart CEO and co-founder.The most expensive Indian artwork sold at an auction is MF Husain’s 1954 painting Untitled (Gram Yatra), which sold for more than Rs 118 crore in March 2025.The cumulative sale at Saturday’s auction was Rs 355.77 crore, with all 85 lots that were featured sold. “The auction brought together an extraordinary selection of works and collectors responded to the rare opportunity of acquiring works of art historical importance with tremendous enthusiasm,” said Vazirani. “Today, Indians have generated wealth, are buying nice homes, and are increasingly also feeling the social pressure to acquire good art, as people now understand what is good art. There has also been a significant shift in mindset — people now recognise that art holds inherent value for the next generation and that it will appreciate. That belief is also giving them confidence.”Fetching Rs 20.40 crore, F N Souza’s Six Gentlemen of Our Times, 1955 (set of six) garnered the highest value for a work on paper by a South Asian artist in an auction. The pen and ink work was created when the artist was based in London. A note on the set on the Saffronart website said: “In 1954, just a year before he drew the present lot, Souza had seriously considered returning to India, having barely managed to scrape by since moving to London. He gave up the plan when a Paris dealer offered him a solo show where he met poet Stephen Spender, the then editor of literary magazine Encounter… His fortunes shifted dramatically in 1955, when Encounter published his autobiographical essay ‘Nirvana of a Maggot’ in its February issue, coinciding with his debut solo exhibition at Gallery One, run by Victor Musgrave.”Nalini Malani’s Nursery Tales (2008) sold for Rs 3.60 crore, over five times its higher estimate, setting the highest price achieved by a Malani work at an auction.While Trussed Bull (1956) by Tyeb Mehta sold for Rs 56.40 crore, eight times its higher estimate, The Anchorite (1983) by Jehangir Sabavala sold for Rs 16.80 crore. A 1956 self-portrait in ink and paint on canvas by Jyoti Bhatt sold for Rs 50.40 lakh.Story continues below this adVazirani said: “Across the board, the so-called second-tier artists who have been overlooked till now are being looked at very seriously and their prices are rising quite rapidly. This is also because the top-end has gone so high and people entering the market now want something palatable that they resonate with.”Vazirani said the Indian art market would achieve greater heights. “In the world art market, .1 percent of your GDP is the art market. For instance, in the US the GDP is $33 trillion, the art market is $30 billion, in China the GDP is $19 trillion, the art market is $19-20 billion. In India, our economy is four trillion and the art market is only $ 400 million; it should be four billion. So I believe there is still a long way to go.”The collector base, meanwhile, is also expanding. “There are so many young collectors now coming into the market,” he said.© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd