Christie's achieved a rare 'white-glove' sale in its Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art auction, selling all 84 lots for $12.38 million—150% above the low estimate. The sale was led by Vasudeo Gaitonde's *Untitled (1984)* at $2.4 million, with strong bidding from India, the US, the UK, the UAE, and Singapore. New artist records were set for Sheikh Mohammed Sultan and Ivan Peries, while works by Rashid Choudhury and Biren De also drew intense interest. The auction, overseen by Nishad Avari, head of Christie's Indian art department, signals a broadening of the market beyond established modernists like M.F. Husain and S.H. Raza.
This sale matters because it confirms that Indian art has transitioned from a niche category to a globally recognized asset class. The Indian art market has grown from roughly $2 million in 2000 to about $338 million by 2025, with projections to surpass $1 billion by 2030. A rising pool of high-net-worth individuals in India, combined with an increasingly international collector base and the expansion of dedicated Indian art departments at both Christie's and Sotheby's, is reshaping the market. The inclusion of underrepresented regional artists and the first Dubai preview by Christie's further indicate that South Asian art is becoming a permanent fixture on the world stage.