Christie’s will hold Sublime Shadows: South Asian Art From a Distinguished Collection, a live auction at King Street, London, on 11 June 2026. The sale marks the first dedicated South Asian Modern and Contemporary auction at King Street since 2019 and will feature 93 lots from a single private collection, assembled between the 1990s and the early 2000s with a focus on the artistic legacy of Bengal.
Leading the sale is Vasudeo S. Gaitonde’s Untitled, 1971, estimated at £1,200,000 to £1,800,000. The abstract painting dates from a pivotal period following Gaitonde’s exposure to Abstract Expressionism in New York. Widely regarded as India’s foremost abstract painter, Gaitonde produced only a handful of works each year.
Central to the collection is a group of works from the 1970s by Ganesh Pyne, including The Fisherman, 1979, estimated at £250,000 to £350,000. The offering follows two consecutive world-record results for the artist in Christie’s New York sale on 25 March, and ranges from large tempera-on-canvas paintings to smaller sketches drawing on Bengali folklore, mythology and memory.
Further highlights include Kattingeri Krishna Hebbar’s Untitled (Gulmohar Tree), 1962, estimated at £70,000 to £100,000, and Meera Mukherjee’s Untitled (Wheel Builders), estimated at £60,000 to £80,000, a sculpture adapting traditional Dhokra lost-wax casting techniques to everyday subjects.
The sale follows Christie’s South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art auction in New York on 25 March, which realised $27,097,450, the highest total for the category outside India. Damian Vesey, International Specialist in the department, noted that the recent New York result, including two world auction records for Ganesh Pyne, underscored the depth of international demand for artists whose works rarely come to market.
Selected highlights will tour internationally before the London auction, with viewings in Mumbai from 8 to 13 April, New York from 27 to 29 May, and London from 6 to 10 June.
(Press Release)
