Come Tuesday (March 19) and Christie’s saleroom will be devoted to the classical works of Indian and Southeast Asian Art for the next three days. On offer an extensive selection of over 200 lots of sculpture, paintings, ritual objects, and works of art from India, Tibet, Nepal and Southeast Asia, official spokesperson of Christie’s told Financial Chronicle.

At Christie’s, alone, the annual auction totals for modern and contemporary Indian art witnessed a phenomenal growth increasing from approximately $600,000 ($0.6 million) in the year 2000 to over $25 million at the close of 2011. Works by some of India’s modern and contemporary artists crossed the one million dollar mark at auction (and even $3.5 million fetched by the painting ‘Saurashtra’ by S H Raza at Christie’s, London in 2010).

The selection of sculptures at the Asian Art Week of Spring 2013 would include a Tibetan gilt bronze figure of a bodhisattva, a Gandharan bronze figure of Buddha from the 6th/7th century, and a South Indian Chola bronze figure of Vinadhara Dakshinamurti, the spokesperson said.

The Tibetan gilt bronze figure of a bodhisattva from the 9th/10th century comes from a private European Collection. Standing nearly four feet tall, this large and resplendent figure of a bodhisattva is one of the most impressive early sculptures in bronze to be seen outside of Tibet. The present work represents a unique moment in stylistic development, evolving from and engaging with the nearby artistic traditions of northeastern India and Nepal while working with the existing Tibetan style of sculpture. Certain aspects of the work also demonstrate a familiarity with Nepalese sculpture, specifically the treatment of the headdress, she said.

The selection of paintings will have an exceptional works and iconic masterpieces by leading artists like Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, Maqbool Fida Husain, Tyeb Mehta, Jagdish Swaminathan and Syed Haider Raza, alongwith contemporary painters like Subodh Gupta, Rina Banerjee, Atul Dodiya, Bharti Kher, Ravinder Reddy, Tayeba Begum Lipi of Bangladesh, Pakistani modernist Zahoor ul Akhlaq, Abdur Rahman Chughtai. Besides, there will also be a collection of early works by Francis Newton Souza, which will highlight 50 years of Goa’s independence, she said.