Tyeb Mehta's 'Rickshaw Puller' fetches record 69 crore

The Times of India

Neelam Raaj · Oct 12, 2026

In 2002, a Tyeb Mehta triptych aptly titled Celebration, from The Times of India collection, set off quite a party in the Indian art market when it became the first Indian painting to cross the crore mark at auction. Though it came in the winter of his life, it was a remarkable milestone for an artist who had spent much of his life in a cramped one-room Bombay apartment that doubled as a studio by day and a bedroom at night.