Amrita Sher-gil's The Storyteller becomes most expensive work by an Indian artist ever, bags Rs 61.8 crore

Fetching a whopping Rs 61.8 crore, avant-garde artist Amrita Sher-gil’s oil on canvas The Storyteller has unseated Sayed Haider Raza’s Gestation in becoming the most expensive work of Indian art sold at an auction worldwide.

The 1937 artwork, sold in New Delhi on Saturday at Saffronart’s ‘Evening Sale: Modern Art’, was among the 70 plus art pieces by eminent artists, including MF Husain, VS Gaitonde, Jamini Roy and FS Souza, featured in the auction.

It was only last month that Raza’s 1989 Gestation, also an oil-on-canvas painting, was sold for Rs 51.75 crore by Pundole’s auction house in Mumbai, becoming the most expensive Indian artwork ever sold at auction.

The Storyteller, touted to be among the 12 works selected by Sher-Gil herself as her most important works, is widely considered an example of the artist’s most honest and expressive compositions.

The painting was first exhibited at Sher-Gil’s successful solo exhibition at Faletti’s Hotel, Lahore, in November 1937.