Even so, two paintings at the auction sustained the vigour of the crore-plus club, with S N Souza's 1964 crucifixion painting (Last Howl From The Cross) fetching £260,000, while Tyeb Mehta's Pink figure fetched £125,000 at the Bonhams sale of Indian and Islamic art.
In all, there were 561 lots, of which the modern artists made up only 70 works. Despite that, they contributed £1.65 million to the £3 million sale that consisted of a very large number of antiquities - among them reams of Islamic calligraphy, miniature paintings from Asia in general and India in particular, illustrated manuscripts, vessels, artefacts, shawls, silver objects, weapons and jewellery.
"It has been one of our most successful sales, and the moderns, in particular, did very well, continuing the trend in rising prices of Indian artists," said Mehreen Rizvi Khursheed, specialist in 20th century Indian and Pakistani art, consulting Bonhams on the sale.
While there were few artists from Pakistan in the auction (including the ever-dependable A R Chugtai), the highest bid was bagged by Sadequain's erotic Man and Woman (£22,000).
Among the Indian lot, the 12 Jamini Roys did well (highest bid £28,000 for Mother and Child), but it was F N Souza who stole the show with all eight paintings performing well and contributing a fourth the value of the entire sale of £3 million.
Among the others who merited attention were B Prabha (£27,000), J Swaminathan (£70,000) and K K Hebbar (£35,000).
A large chunk of the auction consisted of Indian miniatures, and while most sold for values under £1,000, the highest price was paid for a Kota miniature (£5,500). All these prices do not include the buyer's premium and tax, which would escalate their value further.
However, the highest bid at the auction was for a set of eight Persian paintings (£319,000), followed by Souza's top grosser, and then an embroidered curtain from the entrance to the Ka'ba (£274,400). "The interest in India was affirmed at the sale," said a collector who bid actively for some of the works.
"Britain is usually a conservative market, and even though it is more familiar than other nations when it comes to Indian art, it seems finally to have woken up to its potential too."
