The Opaque and Convoluted Indian Art Market: Contextualizing the Prominent Fine Art Auction Houses in India

Dr Ranjan Kumar Mallik; Abhijit Kumar Mohanty

Volume : VII, Issue : VII, July - 2018

The Opaque and Convoluted Indian Art Market: Contextualizing the Prominent Fine Art Auction Houses in India

Dr Ranjan Kumar Mallik, Abhijit Kumar Mohanty

Abstract :

Indian Art Price Figures presented are based on turnover of auction houses, private galleries, secondary market, and Indian art globally, including sales figure of The Art Fair. These figures however are an approximation as there is no way of knowing the actual turnover because of private galleries and primary market.

Based on the latest figures available, the Indian art market is thought to be worth anywhere between Rs 1000–1200 crore with paintings comprising 99% of the art market. A significant achievementconsidering the Indian art market was worth only approx. Rs 50crore a decade ago. Over the years the Indian art market has grown substantially achieving its peak in 2007 with a market size of Rs 2,000 crore. However, the difficulty with the art market is that so much of the value of art is tied to the ‘judgments’ of commercial art establishments. These establishments have access to privileged information that is not made universally available and so the market is drastically distorted and arbitrary. It is this niche nature of the market mechanism that makes it difficult to study and access information publically and objectively.