At $13.6 million, new record for the most expensive living woman artist
Depicting a blonde woman, nude from the waist down, except for a pink sock on one foot, the 1997 oil on canvas Miss January, by South Africa-born Netherlands-based artist Marlene Dumas, has become the most expensive work sold by a living woman artist at an auction — selling for $13.6 million (with premium) at a Christie's sale on Wednesday evening in New York. It had been estimated at $12 million to $18 million.
Garnering total sale of $96.5 million, the top lot at the '21st Century Evening Sale' was Baby Boom, a 1982 triple portrait by Jean-Michel Basquiat, which sold for $23.4 million. New records were set for four other artists at the sale.
Isabella Lauria, Head of the 21st Century Evening Sale, said in a release, 'We were thrilled with the outcome of our sale this evening. We met the market's demand for quality works of great provenance, beginning with the group brilliantly selected by Tiqui Atencio and Ago Demirdjian, who stand among the most important collectors of contemporary art today. We were privileged to offer an array of best-in-class examples by women around the world, and were proud to establish new records for Simone Leigh, Emma McIntyre, and a benchmark price for a living female artist with Miss January by Marlene Dumas selling for an incredible $13.6 million.'
Born in 1953 in Cape Town, South Africa, Dumas is one of the most well-regarded painters at present. Known for her figurative depictions, she often refers to archival material and mass media sources for her portrayals and research.
The record for a living woman artist at auction was previously held by Jenny Saville, whose painting 'Propped' (1992) sold at a Sotheby's sale in London in 2018 for $12.4 million.
In India, the record is held by Amrita Sher-Gil whose canvas The Story Teller, sold for ₹61.8 crore (approximately $7.45 million) at a Saffronart auction in 2023.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NDTV
an hour ago
- NDTV
Watch: Fan Inflicts Self Injury To Put 'Blood Tilak' On Virat Kohli's Photo. Internet Reacts
Quick Read Summary is AI generated, newsroom reviewed Royal Challengers Bengaluru won their first IPL title by defeating Punjab Kings by six runs. Fans celebrated the victory widely, with emotional reactions from players like Virat Kohli. A viral video showed a fan injuring himself to apply blood as tilak on Kohli's poster. Fans around the world whole-heartedly celebrated Royal Challengers Bengaluru's victory in IPL 2025. The Bengaluru-based franchise, who enjoys a large fan base across India, defeated Punjab Kings by six runs in the summit clash in Ahmedabad to clinch their maiden IPL title. The 18-year-long wait finally came to an end for the team as well as the fans. The moment when RCB sealed the win over PBKS, star batter Virat Kohli completely failed to hide his tears and joyously lived every moment of his team's triumph. RCB's title win triggered wild celebrations all over the country and one such example went viral on social media, where a fan was seen applying 'blood tilak' on Virat Kohli's poster. In a video going viral on social media, a big Virat Kohli and RCB fan was see slitting his writ with a sharp object. As the blood started pouring out of his hand, he took some and applied it as tilak on Kohli's poster. ??wot — Ghar Ke Kalesh (@gharkekalesh) June 6, 2025 The video went viral on X (formerly Twitter) like a wildfire as the users gave mixed reactions to the fan's wild act. Kohli ke liye Kitna Prem Hai is Insan ke Dil mein Jo Apne khoon Se Tilak kar raha hai — Anni yadav (@AnniYadav040) June 6, 2025 itna zyada obsession bhi galat hai tbh — vish (@Vishaaakhaaa) June 7, 2025 This isn't fandom. This is Final Destination: Cricket Edition. Fans life matters.. Be inspired, not obsessed. — SumitM (@SumitM_X) June 6, 2025 Earlier on Wednesday, RCB received a hero's welcome in Bengaluru but the fanfare turned disastrous as 11 people lost their lives while close to 50 were injured. Four people have been arrested in connection with the stampede outside Chinnaswamy Stadium. According to the police, Nikhil Sosale, a top marketing official of the RCB, was among those arrested. He was on his way to Mumbai when he was arrested from Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, at around 6.30am. BCCI is now thinking to introduce guidelines for victory celebrations. "At some stage BCCI will have to do something. We cannot be a silent spectator," BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia told Cricbuzz. "It was a private affair of RCB but we at the BCCI are responsible for cricket in India and we will try to ensure such incidents do not recur in future."
News18
2 hours ago
- News18
Dakota Johnson Steps Out In A Sheer Black Dress After Breakup With Chris Martin
Last Updated: Following her breakup with Coldplay's Chris Martin, Dakota Johnson stepped out in New York City in a sheer body-hugging dress. Fans call it her 'revenge dressing era.' Actor Dakota Johnson has been making headlines following her split with Coldplay's Chris Martin after dating for eight years. The actor was recently spotted at the NBC Studios at Rockefeller Plaza in New York where she appeared on the latest episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers to promote her film – Materialists. For her appearance on the talk show, the actor opted for a black body-hugging sheer ensemble. Known for her effortlessly chic and confident style, Dakota Johnson pulled off this risque outfit like a pro. The actor paired the black sheer ensemble with minimal accessories to let the outfit do all the talking. In what can be termed as Dakota's revenge dressing era, she stepped out with panache. DAKOTA MAYI JOHNSON TODAY OH MY GOODNESS — ju 🕸 (@dakotasrare) June 5, 2025 Wearing a sheer, figure-hugging bodysuit by London-based designer Nensi Dojaka, Dakota Johnson wore the long-sleeved Renee bodysuit (£530, approximately Rs 61,499) that featured Dojaka's signature anatomical cut-outs and precise paneling. With its sheer detail, the bodysuit was more mesmerizing than flashy, the look drew you in without screaming for attention. Dakota paired it with the matching Mila tulle midi skirt (£700, approximately Rs 81,225), which moved behind her like a soft breeze, adding a hint of romance to the otherwise sultry ensemble. A strapless black bodysuit worn underneath subtly toned things down, striking the perfect balance between bold and refined. As the newly appointed global ambassador for luxury jeweller Roberto Coin, Dakota kept her accessories refreshingly minimal, just dainty earrings and a sleek pair of pointed Saint Laurent Raven sling backs in black. Her glam stayed true to her signature: pin-straight hair, a classic fringe grazing her brows, and an effortless air that's unmistakably Dakota. Dakota and Chris have been romantically linked since 2017. The couple chose to keep their relationship mostly out of the spotlight. Still, they made occasional headlines with rare public outings, like Dakota accompanying Chris on his Coldplay Music of the Spheres tour stop in India earlier this year, or the pair being spotted leaving a Malibu yoga class together in May this year. Despite periodic breakup rumours over the years, insiders have consistently reassured fans that things remained strong between the two. However, a recent exclusive source report from PEOPLE mentions that this might be their 'final' breakup. tags : dakota johnson fashion lifestyle Location : Delhi, India, India First Published: June 07, 2025, 09:08 IST News lifestyle Dakota Johnson Steps Out In A Sheer Black Dress After Breakup With Chris Martin
Mint
2 hours ago
- Mint
For Sai Srinivas of Mobile Premier League, the game is always on
It's easy for people to put a value to a loss they've had," says Garimella Sai Srinivas Kiran, the co-founder of gaming company M-League, which runs the Mobile Premier League (MPL). '(But) It's hard to put a value to these intangible gains, right? You only notice them in the long term. In the short term, you only see the pain." Startup founders tend to be philosophical, a by-product of betting big on a non-existent product and making it work, despite the obstacles and the body blows. The seven-year-old skill-gaming platform MPL. which has free and paid components and a portfolio of over 60 games, probably does not qualify as a startup anymore, but tends to fall into the bracket by virtue of being a tech company. M-League, which now has five companies including the Berlin-based GameDuell, has a portfolio that includes skill gaming, free-to-play games, game publishing and AAA game studio (high-budget, high-profile games). With over 220 million users across MPL and GameDuell in 32 countries, a unicorn valuation as of the last fund raise in 2021, presence in Asia, Europe, North America and Africa, and 600-odd employees, the company straddles the challenging business of skill gaming. Its revenue in FY24 was $130 million. Sai was in Mumbai in early May for the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (Waves), a government-sponsored event. In the business centre of the Sofitel Hotel in Bandra Kurla Complex, close to the venue for Waves where MPL had a booth, the 37-year-old, dressed casually in a collared T-shirt, slacks and a cap, orders an Americano. He has an easy-going manner, and a dimpled boyish smile that he uses liberally. Sai is temporarily stationed in Singapore these days, where M-League is headquartered, while his co-founder Shubh Malhotra and Galactus Funware Technology Pvt Ltd, the operating entity for MPL, are based in Bengaluru. Since losing his father last year, Sai says he has started valuing his time more and separating his professional and personal identities. 'One of my core philosophies in life is anonymity. I want to focus on my business," he explains. 'I really enjoy travelling; I can travel literally 60 days with one suitcase, keep moving from one place to the other." Born in Hyderabad—his father was a deputy manager in a bank, mother a teacher in a government school—Sai's academic journey fell into two innings. He was 'not very good" in the beginning, but an inexplicable switch turned after class VI. By the time he reached the board exam stage, he wanted to study aerospace engineering. Also read: What Siddharth Roy Kapur wants: Fresh stories told in unique voices He got into IIT Kanpur which had, among other things, a dedicated leased line for fast (for those times) internet speed. However, he soon became disenchanted with the education system there and his enthusiasm for making aircraft withered away. 'For people coming from a normal background like us, the first important level of freedom we need to attain is mastery of our time," says Sai, who graduated in 2010 as one of the few in his batch without a campus placement. One of his highlights at IIT turned out to be organising the cultural festival, Antaragni, which included the music festival Synchronicity. What this first, quasi-entrepreneurial voluntary role did was to get him access to his first job, which was a brief stint as product manager with a digital company in Delhi. He was soon recruited by Zynga in Bengaluru as a game designer, though he had no such experience. 'I played a lot of games while growing up," he admits. 'My dad and I were always particular about getting new gadgets, like the Nokia 3310 and the (gaming console) Super Nintendo." Zynga, with its popular game Farmville, was going 'absolute gangbusters" at the time, which put Sai in the 'right place, right time". It also helped that he didn't like Delhi too much and moving to Bengaluru was not a challenge. The third benefit, unbeknownst to him at the time, was that the friend's place he temporarily stayed at had another roommate, Malhotra. A year-and-a-half later, Sai and Malhotra got ready with their first venture, CREO Tech. Their first product, Tewee, was a wireless HDMI dongle to stream videos over a Wi-Fi network, like the Amazon Firestick. The idea seemed to fit in at a time when streaming services were making their forays into the country. 'We were foolish enough to say let's make hardware," he says now. 'We used to download these documents in Chinese and spend days translating them and figuring out what they hacked our way to getting the product out." They sold over 50,000 units, but making hardware was challenging. Other similar products were getting into the market; the duo realised they needed to pivot. In the company of some 'smart engineers" they hired through their college network, their next venture was an Android-based operating system and smartphone, which also turned out to be an error in hindsight. 'I'll tell you the problem with making a phone and with hardware in general," he says. 'For example, let's assume I ship software and I left a bug in it. I'm just going to patch the software and I'll fix it. Life is okay, all good. With hardware, even if you make one mistake, the amount of time it's going to take to correct that mistake in the next iteration and then get it right—it's just massive." After several struggles, managing to make only a few thousand of the product Creo Mark 1, they sold the company to messenger service Hike in 2016-17. 'If a river is flowing downstream and you're standing on the bank and you see this guy on a boat going really fast, you tend to assume that it's the person rowing. But it's actually the underlying river. That's the market: If you're in the right place, right time, right market, even if you are really stupid, you'll be okay," says Sai. After going through a period of angst, when they felt like they would never work together again, Malhotra and Sai made a deal not to have friends as employees, and that 'the outcome is always more important than output". Having decided that their next turn would be in the field of online gaming, because of his experience in the field, the newly formed Galactus Funware went live with the MPL in September 2018. With about $5.5 million ( ₹36.5 crore at the time) at the get-go, a fairly large seed round, from Sequoia Capital, their ascent was rapid—a term sheet in April, an early team by May and the first prototype by July. A friends and family round by end of August leading up to the launch. By December, MPL had a million daily active users. But the challenges were continuous and constant. In May 2019, MPL was kicked out of the Play Store due to Google's developer policy (it relaxed its policy on real-money gaming last year), along with other gaming platforms like Dream11. 'We would be the only company in India's ecosystem that started, raised a lot of money, got to a million daily active users and shut its doors within the year," Sai says grinning. Then by the second half of 2019 they almost ran out of money, looking to raise a bridge round which came in the form of $90m led by Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital. '2019 for me was the most foundationally painful year. If Creo was tough from a different standpoint, this was toughness induced by my own stupidity," he says. Cricketer Virat Kohli came on board as their brand ambassador. The following year, MPL signed on with the Board of Control for Cricket in India to be the kit sponsor for the Indian team. With the pandemic, the founders had to navigate working remotely, and between 2020-21, the company went from 120 employees to 1,200, perhaps hiring too many people too fast. 'In my 10 years of doing start-ups, I believe, that is the most unpardonable mistake," he admits. As MPL went global, especially into the US in July 2021, and acquired European company GameDuell in early 2022, 'one of the smartest things to have done", it also laid off 10% of its force and shut down its Indonesia office. But the business, on the back of the pandemic-induced lockdown that catalysed the online gaming industry, grew by 50%. Just when 2023 seemed on the up, hitting 200 million users and a foray into Africa, the government in August announced a 28% GST on funds online gaming companies collect from customers. Mint had in November quoted a report by gaming-focused venture capital firm Lumikai, which had India's gaming market growing 23% year-on-year by revenue to $3.8 billion in 2023-24 despite 28% GST on online gaming. Propelled by the pandemic-induced lockdowns, online gaming is booming, despite some amount of social stigma, and some legal battles, most of which have been dismissed by the courts. 'We looked at this entire GST thing and said this is essentially the start line being redrawn," remembers Sai. MPL laid off 350 employees—half of its force—to survive the tax burden in 2023. Recovery was aided by GameDuell, which helped grow revenue more than three times. MPL started to take off in the US and Brazil, with 40% of its current revenues coming from abroad. 'It's a personal ambition that we want to build a product that stands globally," Sai explains. 'The professional ambition is that things are evolving in a developing country, so there is no certainty for a business to thrive." While MPL as a business competes with platforms like WinZO and Zupee among others, it is more comparable to Nazara Technologies, which is publicly listed. Sai, though, prefers to see his competition coming from Chinese gaming conglomerate Tencent. As he gets ready to head back to Waves, he talks about reading, spending a lot of time just being idle, really enjoying the mundane. 'One of the reasons why I enjoy living in Singapore," he says thoughtfully, 'or spending time with my partner in Dubai, is that in India, these amazing pleasures of doing your own domestic chores have been taken away thanks to the massive amount of help, which is great. But I really enjoy doing my breakfast, putting my clothes in these daily rituals." Also read: Vaibhav Kala of Aquaterra Adventures: The outdoors man
