Mumbai, March 29: Reflecting an undying demand for Indian masters' works, an untitled painting by renowned artist VS Gaitonde went under the hammer here for INR 9.6 crore, and Ganesh Pyne's seminal Raktakarabi (1957) for INR 2.4 crore.

Auctioned by professional auction house Astaguru under its Modern Indian art sale, most of the 40 works on sale crossed the estimates they were put up for, testifying to the maturing of India's art market.

As per the auction house, while Gaitonde's work was estimated to sell between INR 8-10 crore, Pyne's Raktakarabi, based on a similarly titled play by Rabindranath Tagore, was estimated to go under INR 60 lakh. It, however, sold for INR 2.4 crore.

It also featured paintings by masters like MF Husain, Akbar Padamsee, Ram Kumar, FN Souza, Nandalal Bose, Bikash Bhattacharjee, Ganesh Pyne and J Swaminathan.

Prabhakar Barwe's 1990 work titled Canvas Bag went for more than twice its estimate at INR 82 lakh. A national art treasure, Arjuna by Nandalal Bose sold for around INR 72 lakh.

Another work that did well was the Doll series by Bikash Bhattacharjee. A very well-documented and exhibited work, this painting is from one of the artist's most important series and a turning point for him as after this he garnered nation wide acclaim.

Other interesting developments include a rare work by Swaminathan from his tribal series which was sold at INR 1,48,84,118 and Rameshwar Broota's work from his Man series that was auctioned for INR 1,35,00,333.

The two-day auction concluded late Thursday.