How record auctions are fuelling India's art boom

The South Asian art market has raked in millions in recent months, even as global art sales slump.

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This untitled 1971 painting by Vasudeo Santu Gaitonde headlined a record-breaking recent Saffronart auction in Delhi, which fetched $40.2m (£29.9m) - the highest-ever total for South Asian art. Gaitonde's work alone sold for $7.57m, nearly three times its estimate, making it India's second most expensive painting.

The bidding added momentum to an already strong auction season for Indian art.

Just days later, Sotheby's sold artist Francis Newton Souza's landscape, Houses in Hampstead, at a price marginally lower than Gaitonde's piece, making it India's third highest grossing painting. Earlier this year, the record for India's most expensive painting was reset when MF Husain's Untitled (Gram Yatra) fetched a staggering $13.8m.

Auctioneers and curators say India's art market is witnessing an unprecedented boom, driven by a surge of art fairs, galleries, and exhibition spaces across cities and towns.