kolkata indian art has created a wave at the sothebys auction in london the auction has scaled a total sale value of 4290 million this is well above the highest presale estimate of 34 million f n souzas oil on canvas the red road has swung the tallest price of 580000 against an estimate of 250000350000 but a name who was waiting to reach far higher price levels for a long time has turned out to be a staggering performance rabindranath tagores death scene has gone for 144500 interestingly 97 of the 123 lots on offer have been picked by collectors this works out to a sale percentage of around 79 in terms of volumetogether with souza a subodh gupta untitled oil on canvas has fetched 264500 and was bought by an anonymous buyer while an akbar padamsee untitled has gone 264500 in step another padamsee has been picked up for 252500 a souza untitled has been acquired for 228500 and an m f husain untitled has been bought for 150500 in the same breath souzas still life has been acquired for 144500 atul dodiyas each father lost viii 138500 and s h razas la source 108500in an email to et from london head of indian art at sothebys london zara porterhill said indian art continues to prosper its a market on the move we collated a carefully edited sale with superlative examples from across the board and we are thrilled with the response we have witnessed we saw strong and encouraging prices achieved throughout the sale with both modern and contemporary works performing equally well bidding came from a very international audience which included private collectors institutions and the trade the auction was a great success and we look forward to the international contemporary sale in new york later this month which features a select group of works by indian contemporary artistsaccording to her the sale offered lots of quality and provenance which traced the course of indian art over the last century and encompassed works by key figures of the modern indian art movement such as f n souza and akbar padamsee through to the cuttingedge names of subodh gupta bharti kher and jitish kallatincidentally in tandem with subodh guptas record price bharti khers missing made 106100 against a presale estimate of 3000040000 at the same time t v santoshs a handful of ashes has sold for 102500 over the presale estimate of 3000040000 while a diptych by thukral and tagra titled stop think go sold at 102500 and jitish kallats work from a series collectively humiliation tax realised 58100 the veteran amitabha banerjee who has rarely featured in an international auction has gone for 4500 the sale which was extremely wellattended both during the presale exhibition and in the saleroom saw spirited and competitive bidding throughout 67 of the lots in the sale sold for prices in excess of their presale high estimate and an impressive 11 new auction records were established including rabindranath tagore and jitish