NEW YORK.-Sotheby’s two sales of Indian art this fall brought $9,514,038 (est. $8,313,000/11,585,000), with combined sold percentages of 81.3% by value and 74.7% by lot. The sale of Indian Art including Modern Paintings and Miniatures achieved $6,313,338, and Contemporary South Asia: India and Pakistan, the second of its kind, exceeded its high estimate, bringing $3,202,200. The top lot of the Modern sale was M.F. Husain’s Pagan Mother, which sold for $658,600, and in the Contemporary sale was Atul Dodiya’s Father, which sold for $601,000, a record for the artist at auction (est. $230/280,000). Records were also set for works by Chintan Upadhyay, Jyothi Basu and Zarina Hashmi.

Zara Porter Hill, Head of the Indian and Southeast Asian Art department Worldwide, said: “We were delighted that our two sales of Indian art, consisting of Modern and Contemporary art as well as miniatures, together brought a total of $9,514,038. In our Modern sale, senior Progressive artists and their associated group were strongly represented in top prices. Four works by M.F. Husain were included in the top ten, and of these, Husain’s “Pagan Mother” achieved the second highest price by the artist at auction. A number of rare and unusual works, as well as the miniatures, also brought exceptional prices, including Herman Linde’s “Girl Standing in a Veranda Wearing a Pochampalli Sari”, a record for the artist at auction, and a work on paper by Rabindranath Tagore.”

“Our Contemporary sale, the second of its kind in New York, brought well above the high estimate and established a number of artist records, including Atul Dodiya, Chintan Upadhyay, Jyothi Basu and Zarina Hashmi. There was a very strong showing across all media – for paintings and sculpture as well as photography and video installations, the newest part of this category. There was a particular diversity of buying in the sale with participation from around the globe.”