A single-owner sale of 95 lots from the collection of Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan at Christie's London achieved £45.8m ($61m), shattering the presale estimate of 'in excess of £8m' and setting a new all-time record for any South Asian art sale. The top lot, Basawan's miniature *A Family of Cheetahs in a Rocky Landscape* (circa 1575-80), sold for £10.2m ($13.6m), becoming the most expensive classical Indian or Islamic painting at auction. The sale also featured eight works from the Fraser Album, which together made £6.2m, and a portrait by Dust Muhammad that fetched £2.7m.
The record-breaking sale underscores a surging global interest in South Asian art, with strong demand spilling over from the modern category into classical works. Christie's head of Islamic and Indian art, Sara Plumbly, attributes the rising values to the emergence of Indian buyers who are increasingly active across both contemporary and classical segments. The results cap the strongest year yet for the South Asian art market, following recent high-profile sales at Saffronart and Sotheby's, and signal a sustained shift in collecting patterns toward historically significant works from the region.