In a landmark moment for the Indian art market, Raja Ravi Varma’s oil masterpiece Yashoda and Krishna sold for Rs 167.20 crores (approximately $17.97 million) at Saffronart’s Spring Live Auction in Mumbai on April 1, establishing a new global record for the highest value achieved by a work of South Asian art ever sold at auction.
The hammer fell after an intense seven-minute bidding war, with the painting acquired by billionaire industrialist Cyrus S. Poonawalla, founder of the Serum Institute of India. Poonawalla called the acquisition both a privilege and a responsibility, with reports indicating he plans to make the work available for public viewing.
Significance
The result comfortably eclipses the previous benchmark for modern Indian art at auction — M.F. Husain’s Untitled (Gram Yatra), which sold for over Rs 118 crore to Delhi-based collector Kiran Nadar.
Painted in the 1890s, the 35 x 28.25-inch oil on canvas bears Ravi Varma’s signature and depicts an intimate, domestic moment: Yashoda milking a white cow as the infant Krishna eagerly approaches her. Saffronart CEO Dinesh Vazirani, who has championed the work’s significance ahead of the sale, noted that it “feels both modern and timeless,” anchoring European academic realism in an emotional, devotional register deeply familiar to Indian audiences.
“Works of this calibre, particularly outside institutional collections, are extremely rare,” Vazirani had observed ahead of the sale, noting the painting’s potential to reset benchmarks as institutional interest in pre-modern Indian art intensifies. The painting was estimated to fetch Rs 80–120 crores before the auction; its final hammer price of Rs 167.20 crores significantly exceeded those projections.
The sale cements Saffronart’s position as the leading auction house for South Asian art globally. The Mumbai-based house, which completes 25 years in the market, had earlier in 2025 set a record for the highest value South Asian art sale overall. Wednesday’s result adds another historic chapter to that legacy.
For India’s art market — long regarded as an emerging segment on the global stage — the auction signals a decisive shift in how Indian art is valued, collected, and perceived worldwide.
Athmaja Biju is the Editor at Abir Pothi. She is a Translator and Writer working on Visual Culture.
