India, April 4 -- A 37" x 41.5" oil on canvas painted by one of India's foremost modernists Tyeb Mehta in 1956 sold for Rs.61.8 crore, setting a new world record for the late artist in his birth centenary year at the SaffronArt live auction held on Wednesday. The painting titled Trussed Bull, belonged to the Tyeb Mehta Foundation, and was put up for auction by the artist's wife, Sakina Mehta, who is based in Mumbai.

The two-day auction also set a world record for the highest value sale of South Asian art at an auction, achieving a total sales value of Rs.245 crore ($ 29 million), a representative of the auction house said. The sale on day one itself exceeded the recent Christie's South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art held last month wh...