How the market prices a Husain, why period matters more than subject, and the checks to make before you buy, sell or insure one.
ArtValue compares your work with public auction results and market data. Its coverage of the Indian auction houses (Saffronart, AstaGuru, Pundole's) is limited, so for this market treat the estimate as a first orientation, not as a price or an authentication.
Period first. Husain was a founding member of the Progressive Artists' Group and left India in 2006, dying in London in 2011. His output was huge. The market pays the most for important works of the 1950s and 1960s; later work, produced in very large numbers, trades in a much lower tier.
Medium and format. Oil on canvas ranks above acrylic, which ranks above works on paper, drawings and prints. Posters, offset reproductions and editions are common and are not originals.
Subject. Horses, Mother India and Mother Teresa, and episodes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata are recognised subjects, but a famous subject does not by itself raise the price of a minor or late work.
Provenance. Husain was extremely prolific and gave works away, so informal ownership stories are common. The more documented the path from the artist or his gallery, the better.
Only one result is shown because it is the only one we could verify with a source for this page. It is an exceptional 1954 work and says little about a typical Husain. Prices are as reported, usually including the buyer's premium. 1 crore = 10 million rupees. Isolated results are not a valuation of your work: price depends on period, medium, size, quality and provenance, and sale records move over time.
Forgeries of leading Indian modernists are a documented problem. Examples: in January 2009 S. H. Raza opened an exhibition of his work in Delhi and publicly said that most of the roughly 30 paintings on show were not by him; the show was cancelled the same day (ArtDaily/Artron, 20 January 2009). In September 2025 India's Enforcement Directorate filed a charge sheet before a special court in Mumbai alleging that 11 fake paintings had been sold as works by Husain, Raza, Manjit Bawa and Souza for about Rs 17.9 crore (The Week (PTI), 24 September 2025). These are allegations and cases, not a statement about any particular work.
India's Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972 makes it unlawful for anyone other than the Central Government, or an authority or agency it has authorised, to export an "antiquity" or an "art treasure" (section 3). Exporting or attempting to export one is punishable by imprisonment of six months to three years and a fine (section 25). An "art treasure" is a work of art that the Central Government has declared as such by notification, and no such declaration can be made while the artist is alive. Source: Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972 (text).
Works by nine deceased artists were declared national art treasures by Central Government notifications of 1976 and 1979, the so-called "Navaratna": Abanindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore, Amrita Sher-Gil, Nandalal Bose, Jamini Roy, Raja Ravi Varma, Nicholas Roerich and Sailoz Mookherjea (Khaitan & Co, Chambers Art & Cultural Property Law 2025, India). M. F. Husain is not among those nine, according to the sources below. The Government can still declare further works by deceased artists, so check the current notifications and take legal advice before exporting a major work.
Other rules can apply as well (customs and import duties in the destination country, cultural property rules, taxes). This is general information, not legal advice.
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