A painting by Raja Ravi Varma titled 'Yashoda and Krishna' sold for $17.9 million at a Saffronart auction in Delhi, setting a new auction record for an Indian painting. The buyer was pharmaceutical billionaire Cyrus Poonawalla, founder of the Serum Institute of India.
This sale is a landmark moment for the Indian art market, signaling its growing strength and global recognition. The record price for a 19th-century mythological work underscores the high demand for historical masterpieces and establishes a new benchmark for the valuation of Indian art on the international stage.