The Indian art market has grown significantly after 2020, and the influx of high-quality pieces has considerably expanded the higher end of the market, Minal Vazirani, co-founder of the Mumbai-based Saffronart, said.
During the pandemic years starting 2020 and all the way till last year, the sale of Indian artworks surged, Vazirani said. Saffronart sold the most expensive-ever work of art by an Indian artist last September.
In an exclusive conversation with Mint, she said that the overall size of the auction market expanded by more than a fifth in 2023, from an estimated $150 million in 2022. And so far in 2024, sales have already reached $90 million.
“The market has grown significantly (in value and volume) over the last four years, through the pandemic and the lockdown. One of the reasons that the top end of the market has grown is because there were some particularly important top-quality works that came up for auction and there was competitive bidding for them,” said Vazirani, who has also founded an art fair, called Art Mumbai.
“Across segments during these years, we sold a significantly higher volume of art than in the preceding years, as collectors had the time to focus on art,” she said.
Record-breaking Amrita Sher-Gil painting
In September 2023, the auction house sold a record-breaking Amrita Sher-Gil painting ‘The Story Teller’ dating back to 1937. The oil-on-canvas masterpiece sold for ₹61.8 crore (including buyer’s fee), setting a new record and surpassing the previous one set just a month before.
Till date, it holds the record for the highest-ever price fetched for an Indian work of art. The September auction generated over ₹181 crore in total for the gallery, marking the creation of two other art records.
That same month, rival Pundole’s auction house in Mumbai sold a Sayed Haider Raza painting titled Gestation for ₹51.75 crore, including the buyer’s fee. Next month, in October, an untitled Manjit Bawa artwork depicting the Hindu deity Shiva was sold for $2.3 million (about ₹20 crore), a record sale for the artist done in London by Sotheby’s.
She said the growth in the Indian art market and the prices fetched have been influenced by the types of works available for sale today.
“Art does not exhibit some of the same characteristics as other asset classes. That means there is no commodity that decides its value and it’s not traded on any indices and so it is not as liquid as other investment platforms. But it has, over the years, increasingly been regarded as an alternative asset class. Most importantly, art provides an intangible set of benefits that are difficult to quantify,” she said.
This week, the gallery is looking to auction 130 works of art, including those of SH Raza and Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, who will lead Saffronart’s ‘Summer Online Auction’, and other prominent South Asian artists.
“Online auctions provide access to a much wider community of buyers and collectors globally who may not otherwise come to a traditional auction or are restricted by geography. Additionally, our online auctions provide a transparent process with more information available for the new or young buyer to make decisions.
Over the years, greater price transparency and access have also empowered buyers to make more informed decisions and develop a greater level of trust in the public auction process, sometimes leading to competitive but well-informed bidding and acquisitions at premium prices,” Vazirani said.
Young buyers interested
There is a growing number of younger and millennial buyers, emerging as serious collectors over time. They have access to a lot more information, particularly in their ability to search for artists, prices online, and attend fairs and events that feature south Asian artists around the world and so have entered a more sophisticated and connected art-buying market, she added.
Saffronart began as an online-auction business in 2000 when the Indian art market was valued at just $2 million, before launching offline sale exhibitions as well. Since then, it has had one of its top 10 most expensive lots it ever sold in an online auction, showing growing confidence in the online medium. That artwork was Kali by Tyeb Mehta, which was sold at ₹26.4 crore in 2018.
This week, Raza’s “Untitled” (Village) from 1956, will be leading the sale estimated at $400,000-600,000 (or ₹3.3-5 crore). The work tracks landscapes of Southern France and reflects his artistic evolution influenced by both Western and Indian traditions.
GM Sheikh’s “Talisman: Taveez,” estimated between $361,450-602,410 at a similar ₹3-5 crore, which references diverse artistic traditions and marks a shift in the artist’s medium, will also be on the block.
The auction also includes works by FN Souza, Maqbool Fida Husain, Nalini Malani, Arpita Singh, and Subodh Gupta, many from well-known private collections.
Noteworthy pieces include Husain’s “Untitled” (village scenes) from 1958, estimated at $500,000-700,000 ( ₹4.15-5.81 crore), and Gupta’s “Curry 2”, estimated between $120,485 – 180,725 ( ₹1-1.50 crore).
The auction offers a wide selection of modern and contemporary works, providing opportunities for both seasoned and first-time collectors to acquire significant pieces of South Asian art.
