New Delhi, March 20 -- An untitled work (Gram Yatra) of celebrated artist MF Husain, largely unseen since its creation more than 70 years ago, has become the most expensive modern Indian painting to be sold, fetching $13.75 million at an auction in New York on Wednesday evening.

Christie's, the global auction house, said the painting set a record for both Indian art and the artist and was bought by an institution that it did not identify.

According to writer and editor John Elliott's blog, philanthropist Kiran Nadar "is believed to have won the work for her famous New Delhi art museum known as KNMA."

"It was highly predictable that she would be determined to obtain this important work by such a leading modern Indian artist as Husain. I...