Mumbai: An artwork by Rabindranath Tagore has set a new auction record, selling for Rs 10.7 crore at a recent sale, far surpassing its pre-bid estimate of Rs 2–3 crore. Titled From Across The Dark, the work was among 87 lots offered at Historic Masterpieces, an online auction conducted by AstaGuru between Dec 14 and 17.All 87 lots were sold, resulting in what auctioneers describe as a “white-glove” sale, a term used when every item finds a buyer. The auction realised a total of Rs 163.65 crore. Works by Krishen Khanna, Sadanand K Bakre and Austrian painter Walter Langhammer also set new benchmarks.Khanna’s The Last Supper sold for Rs 10.22 crore, Bakre’s figurative work Monalisa fetched Rs 2.30 crore, while Langhammer’s landscape of the Bombay coastline sold for Rs 56.96 lakh.“The strong response from collectors reaffirms the growing interest for modernist works that are new to the market and distinguished by exceptional provenance,” said Manoj Mansukhani, director of marketing at AstaGuru.Tagore’s record-setting work, rendered in ink, poster colour and crayon on cardboard, is a brooding composition featuring two figures and a solitary tree. Painted in Almora in 1937, four years before his death, it was gifted by Tagore to Rajmata Vidyawati Devi of Kasmanda, Mussoorie.The poet-philosopher took up drawing and painting in his sixties. What began as casual doodling on manuscripts evolved into a full-blown passion, producing nearly 2,500 works that were exhibited across India, Asia and Europe. Tagore’s art was declared a National Treasure under the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972.
