A new commodity has entered India's financial markets, not mutual funds, stocks, bullion, gold, or silver, but art. In the last two years, Indian auction houses have shown remarkable growth. Recently, Yashoda Krishna was sold by Saffronart to Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla for ₹167.2 crore. A couple of months earlier, Husain's Gram Yatra went for around ₹118 crores. In 2023, SH Raza's Gestation sold for over ₹51 crore, and Tyeb Mehta's works have repeatedly set records at both Indian and international auctions, signalling the rise of Indian modernism in the global art economy.
The Western market is also witnessing a decline in speculative buying, with many collectors becoming cautious due to higher interest rates, expensive art-backed loans, and poor short-term returns on contemporary art. However, in India, despite these global concerns, the market for Indian modernists and masters continues to expand aggressively. Record sales of artists like MF Husain, SH Raza, VS Gaitonde, and Raja Ravi Varma indicate that Indian collectors are still willing to invest heavily in art. There is a market for the possession of the works of the Navaratans like Amrita Sher-Gil, Tagore, Sailoz Mukherjea, and Jamini Roy. Many of these works are also protected under India's Antiquities and Art Treasures Act of 1972, making their export heavily restricted and therefore increasing their rarity and cultural value within the country. All these are artists whose works cannot be taken by wealthy Indians to their fabulous homes abroad, so we do not hear much about their prices. But the prices of what we call the Indian masters, modern masters, are skyrocketing as never before.
When comparing artists like Raza, Souza, Gaitonde, Husain, and Krishen Khanna, one gets a glimpse into the market. For instance, in the early 2000s, many works by Raza and Souza sold in the range of a few lakhs, whereas today major canvases by these artists routinely cross several crores at international auction houses like Christie's and Sotheby's. Gaitonde's paintings, once collected largely within limited artistic circles, have today entered the league of blue-chip global modernism, with some works crossing ₹40 crores. What is interesting is that now people are making consortia to buy Ravi Varma's and Raza's works, just waiting for the market to become buoyant and hot, and then they sell.
So, art has now become like property. Art is selling for young masters anywhere from ₹2 lakh a square foot to ₹3 lakh a square foot. It is no longer about the composition, style, colour, and material; it is now about the name and the per square foot. Top-end dealers say that there are astute business people who spend money on art, particularly in difficult times, because that is the best time for them to get the best deal.
As an art curator and academic, I see India's renewed presence at the Venice Biennale as part of a longer continuum. While completing my postdoc in critical art theory at Goldsmiths, University of London, I worked closely with curator Okwui Enwezor through cultural theorist Sarat Maharaj. Enwezor helped shift global exhibitions beyond Eurocentric frameworks, opening space for postcolonial voices. In 2001, at a Truth and Reconciliation platform in Delhi, I introduced Indian practitioners like Raqs Media Collective, Amar Kanwar, and Ravi Agarwal to him, connecting Indian contemporary art to global discourse. I have seen closely how the position of Indian art within museums has changed over time. Earlier, India was always present in museums, but it was often relegated to Asian art or Southeast Asian art sections. But gradually, the terminology of the Global South has emerged, and issues of reparation and the return of cultural objects have become important. Showing Indian art independently has also become increasingly significant.
I firmly believe Indian art is in a hot and buoyant phase, driven largely by the growing wealth of Indians across the world. Billionaire collectors are pushing up prices through auctions, signalling strong confidence in the market. Yet, unlike Impressionist or Pre-Raphaelite art, Indian art is still largely bought by wealthy Indians themselves. For these collectors, the works are not merely investments, but markers of heritage, culture, and identity.
