Manjit Bawa’s Untitled (Radha), a luminous depiction of Krishna’s divine consort set against a vivid red backdrop, closed at Rs 18 crore at Saffronart’s summer online auction on June 16, emerging as the highest selling work of the sale and more than twice its upper estimate of Rs 7 crore.The result anchored what turned out to be a landmark evening for the platform. The two-day auction, held June 15-16, achieved a cumulative Rs 108.24 crore in a white glove sale where every lot found a buyer — the highest total ever recorded by Saffronart for a summer online auction.Bawa’s Bull (1985) added further to the Punjab-born artist’s strong showing, selling for Rs 4.28 crore, more than five times its estimate, underlining the sustained appetite among collectors for his distinctive visual language of fluid figuration and luminous colour.Beyond Bawa, the sale produced several standout results. MF Husain’s ‘Two Women’ (circa 1950s) fetched Rs 12.40 crore and FN Souza’s St Sebastian (1957) sold for Rs 7.33 crore. Ganesh Pyne’s The Robot (2002) realised Rs 5.64 crore, Jagdish Swaminathan’s Untitled (Bird, Tree and Mountain) (1976) brought Rs 4.80 crore, and KG Subramanyan’s untitled circa-1960s work went for Rs 1.69 crore.The evening’s quiet revelation was Badhan Das, whose untitled work sold for Rs 45.12 lakh, 32 times its higher estimate, setting a new worldwide auction record for the artist. Satish Sinha’s untitled oil on board also outperformed sharply, fetching Rs 78.96 lakh, 24 times its estimate. Works from the F N Souza Studio collectively brought in Rs 1.29 crore, with individual lots selling at up to 100 times their estimates.Of the 130 lots on offer, 34 sold above their higher estimates and 16 fetched more than double their projected figures. The results follow a landmark spring in which Saffronart set a global auction record for modern Indian painting with Raja Ravi Varma’s Yashoda and Krishna. For the South Asian art market, the summer numbers confirm that collector confidence, global in reach, remains firmly intact.