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The Rise and Rise of Indian Art (May 29,2006)
As Indian art becomes hugely popular worldwide and prices shoot up to ever more dizzying heights, the question haunting art dealers and collectors is whether there will ever be a saturation point. In theory, one could imagine that, barring temporary market crises, the combination of dwindling supplies and rising world demand would push prices up mechanically.
"This is likely. There is a limit to how many old works there can be, and how many of them are available in the art market," Ram Kumar, an artist, said.
His work sold for over Rs 10 million ($218,000) at Saffronart's Summer Sale.
The sale held on May 10-11 at Mumbai saw 15 paintings by Indian artists crossing the Rs 10-million mark each, making it clear that Indian art is definitely being carried by a tidal wave.
The reason for its unique vigour came out with unprecedented clarity. NRIs from constituencies spread across the globe from the US to Europe to the Far East compete for Indian art. The bidders are goaded by intense rivalry.
"The art market fever is spreading," says artist Sudip Roy, a collector in his own right.
"As rarity increases by the day, so do prices, thus drawing out of their caches the few remaining works seen as major icons in every field. These then jump to ever more extravagant heights."
Indeed, Indian art has awakened global interest and for the moment this fever is infectious. With leading auction houses Sotheby's holding a sale in London May 23 and Christie's organizing one in Dubai the next day and another scheduled in Hong Kong May 28, fresh energy has been injected into Indian art auctions. For the first time, perhaps, a new world order is coming about in the Indian art market as elsewhere in the global economy.
Back home, the Saffronart sale was a sensational triumph. At the auction, competition often pitched one Indian against another.
The intense bidding reminded one of the tussle over Song porcelain between a famed Japanese bidder believed to be Masataka Tomita, who collects exclusively Song porcelain, and an American rival.
In the end, Tomita prevailed but the resulting price was a huge $1.46 million for a piece of porcelain.
Of course, Indian ceramics are yet to come to auction houses but hopefully the falling numbers of Progressives will lead the way.
