Two years ago New York hedge fund manager Rajiv Chaudhri, paid$1.6 million for Tyeb Mehta's Mahisasura (left) at Christie's, making it the first work by a contemporary Indian artist to surpass the $1 million mark. Since then, S.H. Raza and F. N. Souza have followed suit.

New Indian wealth both at home and abroad has elicited prices at auction dramatic enough to make one rethink Chinese contemporary art as the most promising Asian export. Now, with exhibitions of contemporary Indian art taking place all over the world and the art market's nascent endorsement, India has set out to build an international contemporary and modern art museum of its own, the Kolkata Museum of Modern Art (KMOMA), a project said to be inspired by the Tate Modern and earmarked for a world-renowned architect (Frank Gehry and Herzog and de Mueron have been reported to be among the contenders). The museum, a joint venture between the West Bengal government and private investors, including artists, gallery owners, and collectors, is expected to cost $150 million and five years to build.

On Tuesday, Sotheby's offered 84 artworks by nearly 70 artists, many of whom had donated their works to benefit the museum, including Jorgen Chowdhury, Somnath Hore, Ram Kumar, Ganesh Pyne, and Souza. Estimated to tally as much as $3 million, the auction brought in just half of that sum—$1.5 million.

Despite some notable failures--the star of the sale, Mehta's Kali Head (Green), failed to sell against a $400/600,000 estimate—current market strength was reflected in some of the results. Rameshwar Broota's Untitled fetched a double-estimate $300,000, while Arpita Singh's Classified File went for $204,000, exceeding it's top estimate by more than $50,000. Keep Cooking II, a bright red steel sculpture by Venice Biennale exhibitor Riyas Komu sold for a mid-estimate $14,400. Subodh Gupta's bronze and chrome accoutrements, meanwhile, fetched an above-estimate $78,000. Dubbed the Damien Hirst of Delhi, Gupta preempted Hirst last year, creating Very Hungry God (above), a giant skull rendered in stainless steel pots and utensils before Hirst opted for diamonds. Owned by Christie's proprietor Francois Pinault, the work is currently on exhibit outside Pinault's Palazzo Grassi in Venice. No security guards required.

—KELLY DEVINE THOMAS