‘Yashoda and Krishna’, an oil painting by pioneering artist Raja Ravi Varma, has set a new benchmark for Indian art at auction when it sold for Rs 167.2 crore (about $18 million).
After an intense bidding war at Saffronart’s Spring Live Auction in Mumbai on Wednesday, the work was acquired by billionaire Cyrus Poonawalla, industrialist and founder of the Serum Institute of India.
The price surpasses the previous record held by MF Husain’s ‘Untitled (Gram Yatra)’, which sold for over Rs 118 crore last year to Delhi-based collector Kiran Nadar.
Per news agency PTI, the Varma painting had been estimated to fetch between Rs 80 crore and Rs 120 crore, but ended up fetching twice that.
Speaking to the Times of India, Poonawalla said the purchase was both an honour and a duty.
“This national treasure deserves to be made available for public viewing periodically,” he said. “It will be my endeavour to facilitate this.”
Painted in the 1890s at the height of Varma’s career, ‘Yashoda and Krishna’ is considered one of his most accomplished works. It depicts Yashoda milking a cow while the infant Krishna reaches for a goblet of milk from behind, drawing the viewer into the scene and “transforming a domestic moment into an experience that suggests participation in a larger, sacred narrative”.
The artwork had been part of a private collection in Delhi before going under the hammer.
WHO WAS RAJA RAVI VARMA
Born in 1848 into the aristocratic Kilimanoor family of Travancore, Raja Ravi Varma is widely regarded as a pioneer of early modern Indian art.
Varma popularised oil painting in India and was among the first Indian artists to combine European academic realism with Indian mythological subjects, achieving widespread recognition.
In 1894, he also established a lithographic press to mass-produce affordable prints of his works, bringing Hindu iconography into homes across the country.
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