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Iconic 19th Century painting sets Indian art record with $17.9m sale

April 02, 2026 5 min read Art & Culture GS1 (Art & Culture Modern Indian History)
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What Happened

  • Raja Ravi Varma's oil painting "Yashoda and Krishna" (c. 1890s) was sold for $17.9 million (approximately ₹167.2 crore, including buyer's premium) at a Saffronart auction in Mumbai on April 1–2, 2026, setting a new record for the highest price ever achieved by an Indian painting at auction.
  • The buyer was Cyrus S. Poonawalla, the founder and chairman of the Serum Institute of India — the world's largest vaccine manufacturer — who is a known collector of Indian art.
  • The sale surpassed the previous record set by MF Husain's "Gram Yatra," which fetched $13.7 million at Christie's New York in March 2025.
  • The painting depicts baby Krishna holding a golden goblet alongside his foster-mother Yashoda, who is milking a cow — executed in Ravi Varma's signature style blending European academic realism with Hindu mythological iconography.
  • The work could not have been sold to an overseas buyer because Raja Ravi Varma's works are designated as "national treasures" under the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972, which restricts their export.

Static Topic Bridges

Raja Ravi Varma — Life, Style, and Significance in Modern Indian Art

Raja Ravi Varma (April 29, 1848 – October 2, 1906) was born in Kilimanoor Palace, near Thiruvananthapuram, in the princely state of Travancore (present-day Kerala). He is widely regarded as the "father of Modern Indian art" for pioneering the integration of European academic realist and naturalist painting techniques with Indian subject matter — particularly Hindu mythology. Working in oil on canvas, a medium rare in Indian art of his time, Ravi Varma produced portraits of royalty and mythological scenes that were technically aligned with Victorian-era European salon painting while being deeply rooted in Indian aesthetic sensibility.

  • Ravi Varma was one of the first Indian artists to master oil painting and lithographic reproduction.
  • In 1894, he established a lithographic press at Malavli (near Pune) to produce oleographs — affordable prints of his paintings on cloth — making Indian mythological imagery accessible to ordinary households for the first time.
  • His oleographs fundamentally shaped how Hindu deities are visually imagined across India to this day; the popular calendar-art depictions of gods and goddesses trace directly to his aesthetic.
  • Notable works: "Shakuntala Looking for Dushyanta," "Hamsa Damayanti," "Lady in the Moonlight," "Galaxy of Musicians," the "Yashoda and Krishna" series.
  • He received the Kaisar-i-Hind gold medal from the British government in 1904.

Connection to this news: The record-breaking auction price reflects the sustained global and domestic reappraisal of Ravi Varma's historical importance — both as a technical innovator and as the artist who democratised mythological imagery in India.

Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972 — Protection of India's Cultural Heritage

The Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972 is India's primary legislation protecting movable cultural property. Under the Act, any object of historical, archaeological, numismatic, or artistic significance that is more than 100 years old is an "antiquity" and cannot be exported without a licence from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). The Act also empowers the Central Government to declare specific works as "art treasures" — items of outstanding cultural significance that cannot be exported at all. Raja Ravi Varma's works have been accorded this status, making them legally non-exportable regardless of private ownership.

  • The Act is administered by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) under the Ministry of Culture.
  • Illegal export of antiquities is a criminal offence under the Act.
  • India has successfully negotiated the return of smuggled antiquities from the US, UK, Australia, and other countries — over 350 artefacts repatriated in recent years.
  • The "national treasure" designation reflects India's policy of treating certain cultural artefacts as inalienable parts of national heritage, irrespective of private ownership.
  • The 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property provides the international legal framework for repatriation requests.

Connection to this news: The fact that the record-setting painting could only change hands domestically — not be exported — illustrates how the 1972 Act functions in practice to retain exceptional Indian artworks within the country.

Oleographs and the Democratisation of Indian Art

One of Raja Ravi Varma's most enduring contributions is not a painting but a printing innovation: the oleograph (or chromolithograph on canvas, simulating an oil painting). When he set up his press in 1894, he made it possible for the first time in India to own affordable reproductions of high-quality mythological imagery. These prints flooded the market and found their way into homes, temples, and street shrines across the subcontinent, fundamentally transforming popular religious iconography. Art historians consider the "Ravi Varma press" effect a cultural revolution — the mass-produced Hindu deity image is, in large part, Ravi Varma's legacy.

  • The Ravi Varma Fine Arts Lithographic Press was established at Malavli, Maharashtra, in 1894.
  • The press was sold to German printing technician Fritz Schleicher seven years later, but the visual vocabulary had already spread irreversibly.
  • The oleograph tradition gave rise to the Indian calendar art and poster art industries of the 20th century.
  • Contemporary artists and scholars have engaged critically with this legacy — debating whether Ravi Varma's images "standardised" and homogenised regional artistic traditions.
  • The National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi, holds a significant collection of Ravi Varma's original works.

Connection to this news: The $17.9 million sale of an original oil painting contrasts with Ravi Varma's own aspiration to make art affordable to all — an irony that highlights how original works and their mass-reproduced descendants occupy entirely different cultural and economic spaces.

Key Facts & Data

  • Sale price: $17.9 million (₹167.2 crore) including buyer's premium at Saffronart, Mumbai, April 2026.
  • Buyer: Cyrus S. Poonawalla, Serum Institute of India founder.
  • Previous record: MF Husain's "Gram Yatra" — $13.7 million, Christie's New York, March 2025.
  • Raja Ravi Varma: born April 29, 1848, Kilimanoor, Travancore; died October 2, 1906.
  • Medium: oil on canvas.
  • Subject: Hindu mythology — Yashoda (foster-mother) and infant Krishna.
  • Legal status: "art treasure" under Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972 — non-exportable.
  • Ravi Varma press established: 1894, Malavli, Maharashtra.
  • NGMA New Delhi: holds major collection of original Ravi Varma works.
  • Award: Kaisar-i-Hind gold medal, 1904.