Raja Ravi Varma’s celebrated painting Yashoda and Krishna has fetched a staggering ₹38 crore (about $18 million) at an auction in Mumbai, marking the highest price ever secured for a Raja Ravi Varma work and one of the most valuable Indian paintings sold at auction. The sale was held by Pundole Art Gallery, which described the result as likely a global record for a Ravi Varma canvas and a milestone for the Indian art market.
Why the painting broke the record
The work, dating to 1903, depicts the tender mother–son bond between Yashoda and infant Krishna, rendered in Ravi Varma’s signature blend of European academic realism and Indian mythological themes. Its combination of iconic subject matter, historical provenance, and near‑excellent preservation has long made it a crown‑jewel lot in Indian‑art circles. The painting came from the family collection of Fritz Schleicher, a German collector who had acquired the Ravi Varma Press at Lonavala, adding to its pedigree and competitive bidding.
Significance for Indian‑art valuations
The ₹38‑crore hammer price dramatically eclipses previous Ravi Varma highs, such as the roughly ₹20‑crore sale of Radha in the Moonlight, and now positions Yashoda and Krishna at or near the top tier of Indian‑art auction results globally. The result signals strong continuing demand for blue‑chip modern Indian masters and suggests that select pre‑Independence canonical works can rival or exceed the hammer prices recently seen for modern Indian artists such as M.F. Husain and S.H. Raza. Collectors, galleries, and auction houses now see the sale as a benchmark that could push up estimates for other high‑quality Ravi Varma and mid‑20th‑century South Asian modern works in coming years.
