Painting by Indian artist sold for a record price at London auction

London, June 12 (ANI): A painting by a top Indian artist has set a sale record for a modern Indian work, after it sold at an auction in London for 2.4 million pounds.

Christie's auctioneers revealed the painting by Syed Haider Raza called Saurashtra, which was produced during a key period of the artist's career, was sold in London on June 10.

Raza, 88, painted the work in 1983 as a "homage to his homeland".

Christie's said that the painting, an acrylic on canvas, had been sold by a private French collector who acquired it directly from Raza, and it was bought by an Indian museum for well above the estimated price.

The painting was one of several pictures by South Asian artists - including Francis Newton Souza and Tyeb Mehta - that were sold for millions of pounds.

Saurashtra integrates elements of Raza's Indian childhood and cultural heritage into his paintings, Christie's said.

"The painting is one of the most ambitious works he has ever created as a homage to his homeland," the BBC quoted Yamini Mehta, director of South Asian modern and contemporary art at Christie's, as saying before the auction of Saurashtra.

"Its size, scale, and expressive brush strokes radiate the brilliant colours of India and has a deeply spiritual subtext.

"In this one work, the artist has worked through all of the themes of his long and varied career and [it] serves as the shining example of one of the best works in this field to come to auction," she added.

Raza has lived and worked in France since 1950, but maintains strong ties with India, and his works works are mainly abstracts in oil or acrylic, with a rich use of colour and featuring Indian cosmology and philosophy.

He has won numerous awards and has regularly exhibited his paintings in Paris. (ANI)