‘Yashoda and Krishna’ Marks The Return of The Native To Top List at Auctions

It is the first time that a work of Indian art with rather ‘traditional aesthetics’ has bested the otherwise popular modern art at auctions

A few days ago, when the Raja Ravi Varma oil on canvas, Yashoda and Krishna fetched Rs 167 crore at Saffronart’s Spring Online auction on April 1, the entire country and even art followers the world over sat up and took note. The reason, of course, was the price achieved, which instantly made it the most expensive work of Indian art ever sold. It’s a record, which will eventually be broken but was definitely a milestone that is not achieved with ease. It was only last year that the first Indian work of art had crossed the Rs 100 crore mark.

In March 2025, M. F. Husain’s Untitled (Gram Yatra), had fetched approx. Rs 118 crore at a Christie’s auction, making it then the most expensive work of Indian art.

What makes Yashoda and Krishna so special in the onward march of modern and contemporary Indian art is not just the whopping price it has achieved. It is the return of the native, in a way, because this is the first time that a work of Indian art with rather ‘traditional ethos’ that is sitting on top of the table. So far, the works that have always made headlines, right from Tyeb Mehta’s Mahishasura that became the first Indian work to command more than a million dollars at a 2000 auction to S. H. Raza’s Saurashtra that became the first Indian work of art to cross the Rs 10 crore mark in 2010, it has most often been works of modern Indian art that have remained a favourite with the collectors.

Even though works by Raja Ravi Varma and by artists who practiced in the same genre, have achieved record breaking prices, the top list has always been populated by modern works of art, which in turn, has always fuelled the demand for similar works. The so-called traditional Indian art never sat at the top of the table, which makes the feat achieved by Yashoda and Krishna all the more stellar.

It, indeed, is the Return of the Native.

All the works from position #2 to position #20 (and I haven’t counted beyond that), belong to the genre of modern Indian art.

With Yashoda and Krishna achieving the so-far unthinkable feat at the auctions, can one hope for more demand for similar works in the future auctions?