Amrita Sher-Gil Self-Potrait Sold For 1.7 Mn Pounds In London

"Off Lamington Road" by the Mumbai-born Gieve Patel, a poet and a playwright as well as a painter and practicing physician, sold for 149,000 pounds, well in excess of the press sale estimate of 30,000 pounds to 50,000 pounds.

A new benchmark was also set for contemporary artist Nasreen Mohamedi, when his untitled work sold for 93,750 pounds, around five-times higher than was estimated to sell.

A 1964 work by M F Husain titled "The Sixth Seal" that builds on the themes of his celebrated opus "Zameen" and depicts vignettes of ancient Indian sculpture, miniature painting, dance and folk art fetched 725,000 pounds.

Anong the top 10 lots sold were Jogen Chowdhury's painting of a couple, which went for 221,000 pounds, Jehangir Sabavala's "The Intangible Menace", fetched 118,750 pounds while Ram Kumar's landscape sold for 106,250 pounds. F N Souza's "Death and the Maiden" fetched 100,000 pounds while S H Raza's work sold for 93,750 pounds.

"The sale had the right alchemy of fresh to market works at attractive estimates. We are thrilled to see such strong prices for masters Sher-Gil, Husain, Sabavala and Chowdhury with robust competition for the works from both established and new collectors," Mehta said.

Earlier, a collection of miniature Indian paintings from the Sven Gahlin Collection a total of 4.6 million pounds.

Both the Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art sale and The Sven Gahlin Collection featured as part of Sotheby's Indian Art Week in London.