{"id":2604,"date":"2026-06-24T06:41:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T06:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theartsgazette.com\/?p=2604"},"modified":"2026-06-24T06:41:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T06:41:51","slug":"raja-ravi-varma-is-the-flavour-of-the-auction-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theartsgazette.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/24\/raja-ravi-varma-is-the-flavour-of-the-auction-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Raja Ravi Varma is the Flavour of the Auction Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

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‘Little Prince of Courage’, an oil on canvas by Raja Ravi Varma, sold for Rs 30.88 crore at AstaGuru’s auction on June 22-23<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

At the latest AstaGuru auction held on June 22-23, Raja Ravi Varma\u2019s artwork was the top lot sold at Rs 30.88 crore<\/h3>\n
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At the recently concluded AstaGuru auction of Modern Indian Art, titled Collector\u2019s Choice, Raja Ravi Varma\u2019s 1878 oil on canvas, Little Prince of Courage, emerged as the top lot, fetching Rs 30.88 crore. It\u2019s an endearing portrait of a prince in regal finery and also holding a baby sword.<\/p>\n

The top ten list shows that the Progressives, that have been an eternal flavour of the auction season, were accompanied by newer names that have become popular with the collectors in the past few years. To sum it up, the Top 10 list of this auction shows regular names that make up top 10 lists at any auction; not a single new name made it to AstaGuru\u2019s Top 10 as well.<\/p>\n

The top selling works at this auction were:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Little Prince of Courage<\/em> by Raja Ravi Varma, Rs 30.88 crore<\/li>\n
  2. The Conversation<\/em> by Ganesh Pyne, Rs 12.10 crore<\/li>\n
  3. Untitled (Bird, Tree & Mountai) <\/em>by J. Swaminathan, Rs 5.65 crore<\/li>\n
  4. Savani | Des (Diptych) <\/em>by M. F. Husain, Rs 5.44 crore<\/li>\n
  5. Untitled <\/em>by F. N. Souza, Rs 4.50 crore<\/li>\n
  6. Untitled (Reminiscences of a Dream Series)<\/em> by Jogen Chowdhury, Rs 3.79 crore<\/li>\n
  7. Scripted in Time II<\/em> by Rameshwar Broota, Rs 3.75 crore<\/li>\n
  8. Untitled<\/em> by J. Swaminathan, Rs 3.66 crore<\/li>\n
  9. Untitled<\/em> by Ram Kumar, Rs 3.45 crore<\/li>\n
  10. Dancers<\/em> by F. N. Souza, Rs 3.24 crore<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Watch this space for a detailed auction analysis of the season, soon.<\/p>\n[\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Even after his passing as during his lifetime, M. F. Husain remains India\u2019s most well-known artist. It was on June 9, 2011, that Husain passed away at the age of 97 in London, in exile, having been chastised out of India as a result of the controversy arising out of his contentious paintings of Hindu goddesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[54,55,56,57,53],"class_list":["post-2604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-market","tag-mfhusain","tag-modernindianart","tag-archanakhareghose","tag-indianart","tag-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theartsgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theartsgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theartsgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theartsgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theartsgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theartsgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2606,"href":"https:\/\/www.theartsgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2604\/revisions\/2606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theartsgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theartsgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theartsgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theartsgazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}