Sotheby’s London reaches $26.2 million and sets nine records for South Asian art

The auction house Sotheby’s scored an extraordinary success in London: its biennial “Modern & Contemporary South Asian Art” sale, held on September 29, 2026, brought a total of $26.2 million and set nine auction records for South Asian art, as USA Art News reports.

With 73 lots in the catalogue, the sale was led by M.F. Husain’s masterpiece “Mithuna Crimson” — a vibrant work that had been part of Chester and Davida Herwitz’s collection and was included in the artist’s first international institutional presentation at the Worcester Art Museum in 1974, according to Sotheby’s official sale page. The lot with the highest pre-sale estimate was Bhupen Khakhar’s monumental painting “Old Men Playing Chess” ($676,400–947,000), a work from the artist’s estate, exhibited in his 1972 exhibition “Truth is Beauty and Beauty is God” at the Chemould Gallery in Bombay.

The auction paid particular attention to the Baroda school, headed by Khakhar, accompanied by works by Shanti Dave, K.G. Subramanyan and his students Vivan Sundaram and Dhruva Mistry. The catalogue also featured great names of South Asian modernism such as Francis Newton Souza, Sayed Haider Raza, Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, Zarina, Zahoor ul Akhlaq and Rabindranath Tagore.

The London result follows a strong season for Sotheby’s in this category: in March 2026, the New York sale closed with $22.1 million and twelve artist records — confirming the growing international demand for modern and contemporary South Asian art.