The Red-Hot Market for South Asian Modernism Has a New Star

A 1989 painting by Bangladeshi modernist S.M. Sultan, titled *Untitled (Cultivation)*, sold for $50,800 at Christie’s New York on Wednesday, more than doubling its high estimate of $25,000 and setting a new auction record for the artist. The work was acquired by a South Asian institution. Sultan, who died in 1994, is known for his depictions of muscular peasants and has only 14 recorded auction results, with his previous record of $19,500 set just two months earlier at Sotheby’s.