Indian Art Market?

Indian art has been around for over 5,000 years — a complicated and lively reflection of the country’s countless historical, religious and political developments.

Now as a stock market, the respondents are talking about rebound, boom and bust in the Rs. 2000 crore Indian art market, with a new lot of young and first time buyers, revival in the purchase of high-end art by collectors and the entry of Korean and Chinese buyers and investors in the market. Instead of looking it as a collection out of passion excellence and fantasy for creativity, now all the galleries in the sumit are looked as more of an investment option.

When stock markets experience a downswing, investors search for more profitable alternatives, and alternative assets that improve the risk-sdjusted return on their portfolios. But indian art index has a (–)ve market beta and 0 correlation with the S&P 500, another intersting investment for a well diversified portfolio.

Did we ever try to probe into reasons for the decline in Confidence levels in the once-booming market for Indian art? (Dropped by 63% since October) Is it lack of awareness or is it the trickle down effect of recession in the West? Moreover the problems that auction house are facing are high holding cost of inventory. And some galleries cannot liquidate their inventories, as they have used their artworks as collateral to borrow money from banks for expansion. It is yet to be seen how long would it take for the Indian art market to rebound, go for global expansion in full phase and arouse an interest of more foreign investors? How justified are the art collectors, when they claim that because of fall in Indian art market, it has come down to realistic levels and that makes buying easier now than a few months ago when one had to pay inflated prices?

We think that there is a need to promote art education, museums should be more active and discussions and seminars should be held.

What do you think taking into consideration the historical background of Indian art market and boom and bust and expected boom in Indian art market.

Share your viewpoint!