The Saffronart winter auction of modern and contemporary Indian art fetched $12.5 million (about Rs 55 crore) on December 8 in New York.
The sale figures are the highest for the 5-year-old art auction house.
With almost 400 bidders from over 12 countries participating in the auction, 94 percent of the lots sold above the high estimate. The auction also set record prices for many of the artists.
The star lot of the sale was a 1955 work of F N Souza titled Lovers which had a reserve price of $375,000-475,000 (Rs 1.65 to Rs 2.09 crore) which sold for $1.5 million (Rs 6.5 crore) breaking all previous records for the artists work. A diptych by Akbar Padamsee titled Serial Image sold at $500,000 (Rs. 2.1 crore) also a record for the artist.
Below is a list of the top ten bids1. Francis Newton Souza's 'Lovers': $1.48 million (about Rs 6.5 crore)
2. Francis Newton Souza's 'Crucifixion' $622,600 (about Rs 2.74 crore)
3. Akbar Padamsee's 'Diptych - Serial Image': $500,000 (about 2.2 crore)
4. Ram Kumar's Untitled: $371,250 (about Rs 1.6 crore)
5. Tyeb Mehta's Untitled: $355,025 (about Rs 1.5 crore)
6. Akbar Padamsee's Untitled: $330,000 (about Rs 1.45 core)
7. Syed Haider Raza's 'The Village': $309,100 (about 1.36 crore)
8. Syed Haider Raza's 'Bhoomi': $291,500 (about 1.28 crore)
9. Francis Newton Souza's 'Tortured Indian Woman': $291,500 (about Rs 1.28 crore)
10. Maqbool Fida Husain's 'Lady': $242,000 (about Rs 1.06 crore)
