Amrita Sher-Gil's artwork scripted history at a recent auction as it fetched $7.4 million ( ₹61.8 crore). It is worth noting that this is the highest-ever price achieved by an Indian artist. This painting named 'The Story Teller' was created by Ms Sher-Gil in 1937. SaffronArt, the auction house, said that the legendary artist sought to explore the realm of domestic life in painting.
Minal Vazirani, the auction house's co-founder talked about this and said that 'the sale of this particular work is an important milestone in the market. However, equally important, is the work itself - it is an exceptional painting as a cornerstone in Sher-Gil's work as such. She is one of India's national art treasures, and this type of work is quite rare to come across for sale.'
Amrita Sher-Gil's artworks have been auctioned 84 times. The oldest auction we know about happened way back in 1992, where her painting called "Village Group" was sold at Sotheby's.
The artist Sher-Gil was born in Budapest in 1913. Her father, Umrao Singh Sher-Gil, was a scholar of Sanskrit and Persian and he belonged to an Aristocratic family in Punjab. Whereas, her mother Marie Antoinette was a Hungarian national and trained opera singer.
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