The south Asian modern and contemporary art sale will take place on September 12 during Asian Art Week New York. It will showcase the finest pieces from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh from the last century.
A week prior to the auction date, the artworks-on-sale will be previewed from September 7-12.
Interestingly, they will also be previewed at Christie's Mumbai from August 23-25.
On sale will be a masterpiece by renowned painter Tyeb Mehta, "Diagonal XV", painted in 1975. It is estimated at Rs 80-140 crore ($1,500,000-2,000,000).
"In the present work, the focus is on two fragmented figures at the center further divided by a green and orange lightning-bolt. Heightened against the deep maroon ground, these splintered figures communicate the trauma of not being whole and together, representative perhaps of the violent centrifugal forces at play in the larger social context to which they belong," a statement by Christie's read.
Paintings from the diagonal series are the first of Mehta's mature style and mark a watershed in his long engagement with figuration, it added.
A second painting leading the exhibition is Abkar Padamsee's "Rooftops", painted in 1959. The painting comes from his 'gray period' when he had eliminated colour from his palette, and has been described as "a critical meditation on color, form and movement".
The small number of imposing works he created in this palette over the brief period from 1959-60 are among the finest of Padamsee's oeuvre.
"Rooftops" is estimated to be sold between Rs 5.6 crore and Rs 8.4 crore ($800,000-1,200,000).
Created in 1988, Manjit Bawa's Untitled (Acrobat) is another highlight of the sale and the preview. It estimated to be sold at upwards of Rs 4 crore.
The sale, the auction house said, additionally includes important works by Francis Newton Souza, Syed Haider Raza, and Vasudeo S. Gaitonde along with a selection of contemporary works featuring a selection of works in various mediums by Nasreen Mohamedi.
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