AGA KHAN COLLECTION BECOMES HIGHEST VALUED SALE OF SOUTH ASIAN ART
Prince Sadruddin and Princess Catherine Aga Khan accumulated a sizable collection of Islamic and Indian art over the span of almost 50 years. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, the couple's collection included manuscripts, paintings, sketches, and miniatures, all of which were of enduring quality. The Aga Khan collection set a new auction record on October 28, 2025, becoming the most valuable South Asian art sale in history.
The sale, which was organised by Christie's in London, brought together 95 pieces from the Aga Khan collection, including pieces created by well-known artists Reza Abbasi, Dust Muhammad, Basawan, Ghulam Ali Khan, and Bishan Singh. The younger son of Sultan Sir Mohammad Shah, Prince Sadruddin, started collecting these pieces in the 1960s, but it wasn't until he married Princess Catherine in 1972 that his efforts really took off. Christie's describes the royal couple's collection as "exquisite examples of textiles, rugs, and paintings from Persia and India" until the 1990s. They also included works of art from the Pahari highlands, the Deccan, and the Safavid courts that were chosen for their "beauty and meaning."
However, it would be nearly impossible to put together a collection of this magnitude today, according to Edward Wilkinson, Christie's worldwide head of Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian Art. The overwhelming amount of Indian and Islamic art that entered the market after World War II, when British colonialists and Armenian and European traders were starting to distribute their collections in large quantities, is partly to blame for this. Prince Sadruddin prospered in a market full of rare pieces from a neglected area, swiftly assembling one of the most valuable collections of Indo-Persian art in the world.
Prince Sadruddin previously remarked that "you could pick up a good page of Kufic calligraphy, an Islamic script, for less than $100 because Islamic art was a neglected field in those days."
When the Aga Khan collection finally made it to the auction block last month, it created quite a stir for that exact reason. All together, the collection sold for £45.8 million (about $61 million), far exceeding the £8 million (around $7.9 million) pre-estimates for the auction.
Mihr Chand's Colonel Polier's nautch, which shows the Swiss-French explorer during his late 18th-century raid across India, several intricate paintings from the Fraser Album, which was commissioned by William and James Fraser of the East India Company, magnificent Mughal art from 14th-century Persia, and illustrations based on the Hindu epic poem Rasikapriya are among the Christie's auction's highlights.
A Family of Cheetahs in a Rocky Landscape, created by Basawan between 1575 and 1580, was the auction's top seller, though. Several cheetahs are depicted in the painting sleeping beneath a massive tree, with red pebbles and beautiful grass on either side. At £10.2 million (about $13.6 million), the composition became the most costly classical Indian or Islamic painting ever to be sold at auction. According to Wilkinson, A Family of Cheetahs is only one of the Aga Khan collection's many outstanding additions.
"We've been accustomed to utilising the collection as a touchpoint for exceptionalism," Wilkinson says, "so this is a significant and eagerly awaited event in auction history." Nowhere in the world is there a better collection.