The sale, which took place at a Christie auction in New York on March 19, nearly doubles the previous record-holder, Amrita Sher-Gil’s 1937 ‘The Story Teller’, which fetched around USD 7.4 million (Rs 61.8 crore) at an auction in Mumbai in 2023.
The 1954 painting, which left India the same year, remained largely unseen since its acquisition by the Ukrainian-born Norway-based doctor Leon Elias Volodarsky, who was in Delhi to establish a thoracic surgery training centre for the World Health Organisation.
Volodarsky bequeathed the painting to Oslo University Hospital in 1964. The proceeds of the sale will support the training of future generations of doctors at the institution.
Born on September 17, 1915 in Pandharpur in Maharashtra, Husain remains one of India’s most important and sought-after artists whose oeuvre inspires art and conversations across the globe.
