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MF Husain’s Untitled (Gram Yatra) is nearly 14 feet long and made up of 13 panels, each showing a different scene from village life in India.
The masterpiece was sold at a Christie’s auction in New York on March 19. (Photo Credits: X/@ChristiesInc)
Legendary painter MF Husain’s artwork Untitled (Gram Yatra) has become the most expensive modern Indian painting ever auctioned. The 1954 masterpiece was sold for $13.8 million (over Rs 118 crore) at a Christie’s auction in New York on March 19. This sale nearly doubled the previous record held by Amrita Sher-Gil’s The Story Teller which was auctioned for $7.4 million (Rs 61.8 crore) in Mumbai in 2023.
The auction results exceeded expectations. According to ARTnews, Christie’s had estimated the painting’s value between $2.5 million (Rs 21.5 crore) and $3.5 million (Rs 30 crore) but it ultimately sold for more than four times that amount. This also shattered Husain’s previous record of $3.1 million (around Rs 26.5 crore) set in 2023 for his painting Untitled (Reincarnation) at Sotheby’s in London.
Untitled (Gram Yatra) is one of Husain’s most important works from the 1950s. The painting is nearly 14 feet long and made up of 13 panels, each showing a different scene from village life in India. The title means “village pilgrimage” which highlights the importance of rural life in shaping the country’s future after independence. One of the panels features a standing farmer which is the only male figure in the painting. This is believed to be a self-portrait of Husain and the only image which crosses into another vignette of a landscape with fields.
“We are thrilled to have been a part of setting a new benchmark value for the work of Maqbool Fida Husain and the entire category. This is a landmark moment and continues the extraordinary upward trajectory of the Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art market,” Nishad Avari, head of Christie’s South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art, said in a statement as quoted by Press Trust of India (PTI).
The painting originally belonged to Dr Leon Elias Volodarsky, a Norwegian surgeon who acquired it in New Delhi in 1954 while leading a World Health Organisation (WHO) project. In 1964, his estate donated it to the Oslo University Hospital where it remained for nearly seven decades hidden from public view.
“It was in a private neuroscience corridor,” Avari told ARTnews.
Getting the painting to auction was a long process that took 13 years. Since the artwork was in the possession of Oslo University Hospital, the sale could only move forward once the hospital’s board approved it. When the institution was finally ready to sell, the required permissions had to be obtained before the painting could be put up for auction.
“What’s really, really gratifying, is that the proceeds are going to be used to set up a training center for doctors in Dr. Volodarsky’s name,” Avari said.
MF Husain was born on September 17, 1915, in Pandharpur, Maharashtra. His journey as an artist began in Mumbai where he worked as a billboard painter.
After India gained independence, the country was going through a phase of change and growth. During this time, Husain’s art focused on creating a modern identity for India. He was deeply interested in history, mythology and Indian culture, which often influenced his paintings. Many of his works featured gods and goddesses sometimes linked to the politics of that period.
But some of his paintings became controversial which led to FIRs and death threats. Due to this, he was forced to leave India. He lived in Dubai and frequently travelled to New York and London. Husain passed away on June 9, 2011, at the age of 95.
