at a Christie's auction in New York last week A forgotten oil-on-canvas masterpiece by Indian painter MF Husain, rediscovered decades later, has rewritten the record books for Indian art.

Husain’s sale broke the previous record for a modern Indian oil-on-canvas painting—Amrita Sher-Gil’s The Story Teller (1937), which was sold for about $7.4 million ( ₹61.8 crore ...