A 1955 untitled painting by M F Husain was sold for USD 1,058,500, the highest price of the day and over five times of what was estimated at an auction here.

Indian artist Majit Bawa’s untitled painting sold for USD 602,500, double the pre-sale high estimate of USD 200/300,000).

“We are delighted to have set a new world record price for a work by Manjit Bawa at auction; the USD 602,500 price achieved today was far above our pre sale expectations,” said Zara Porter Hill, International Head of Indian Art at Sotheby’s.

“It is by far the most important work by Manjit Bawa to have appeared at auction in the past 10 years and it attracted interest from all around the world,” she added.

Bawa, a painter from Punjab, died in 2008, at the age of 67, from a stroke following nearly three years in coma.

The painting depicts a person standing on two galloping white horses against a rich red backdrop.

The new record was set at the Indian and South East Asian Art auction in New York where Sotheby’s sold 74 Modern Indian paintings for USD 5.4 million.

“A staggering 97 per cent sold by value rate,” Sotheby officials said.

Tyeb Mehta’s 1959 untitled painting from the Emanuel Schlesinger Collection fetched USD 566,000 (est. USD 100/120,000) and Syed Haider Raza’s two paintings sold for over USD 300,000 including L’inconnu which fetched UAD 458,500 (est. USD 120/180,000).

“The USD 1,058,500 fetched for a highly important untitled painting from 1955 by M F Husain was a stunning success as was the Schlesinger Collection where all the works sold, totaling USD 921,650 against an estimate of USD 237/352, 000,” Hill said.

“These results again show the appetite for good quality works with distinguished provenance offered at attractive estimates,” she added.

Raza, 88, was born in Madhya Pradesh but spent a great deal of his life in France. He was awarded the Prix de la Critique in Paris in 1956.

One of India’s most famous artists, Mehta hailed from Gujarat and died from a heart attack in 2009.

Sotheby was founded in 1744 and is presently the world’s second oldest international auction house in operation.