A matter of art

AS INDIAN CONTEMPORARY ART PRICES fall, investors want alternatives. Since old masters such as M.F. Husain, F.N. Souza, S.H. Raza, Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, Ram Kumar, or Tyeb Mehta may be too dear for the average investor—$100,000 (approximately Rs 55.5 lakh) is the typical price of a large work—the focus is on relatively undervalued artists such as those from the Bengal School, as well as antiques including textiles; carpets, rugs and tapestries; miniature paintings; antiquarian books and prints; and coins.

For a decade, Indian art was on a relentless upswing. Artists such as Subodh Gupta and his wife Bharti Kher, Atul and Anju Dodiya, Jagannath Panda, and Riyas Komu consistently set benchmark prices. Gupta’s paintings and sculptures often broke the million-dollar mark. But last year Gupta’s steel pots-and-pans installation, “Hungry God”, went unsold at a Sotheby’s auction. Its estimated price was between $300,000 and $400,000. The market, it seemed, had come a long way since 2007, when his oil on canvas “Saat Samundar Paar” sold for almost $1.2 million at Christie’s, Hong Kong.

Since then the prices of many top artists have settled far below peak. While the bulk of sales continues to be contemporary art, some veteran collectors are ignoring the category almost entirely. Footfalls at this year’s India Art Fair, held in Delhi every January, which mainly showcases contemporary works, decreased from 128,000 to 80,000 and not just because the venue shifted to a more remote location. Participating gallery owners also complained of low business.

Suresh Neotia, chairman emeritus of Ambuja Cements and a lifelong art collector, says, “The simple principle is to focus on what is rare and cannot be replicated. Collect non-renewable items.” He is presently focussed on Kashmiri shawls from the 18th and 19th centuries, which could cost between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 15 lakh.

“The prices of, let’s say, more decorative artists [such as Paresh Maity] have remained stable,” says Kishore Singh, who works at the Delhi Art Gallery and is one of India’s best known curators. “They never went up hugely and have not fallen dramatically.”

He is reluctant to divulge names but what seems to be happening is that some of the biggest collectors today prefer to put their money in a Jamini Roy or marquee names from the old Bengal School such as Binod Behari Mukherjee or Ramkinkar Baij, rather than an expensive Atul Dodiya.

Arun Vadehra of Delhi’s Vadehra Art Gallery says there has been a price correction for contemporary artists—about 5% to 10% in “works of medium importance” and 20% to 25% in top works. However, he says the growth of the market is going to be steep because “India at the moment has only 0.5% of the world art market and about 3.5% of the world GDP, and Indian art has a range of deeply undervalued genres”.

There is also renewed interest in Mughal and post-Mughal miniatures, according to Aman Nath, founder and co-chairman of Neemrana Hotels, art historian, and collector. “When you compare the money spent on a medieval, impossible-to-replicate piece of work with the price of something contemporary, it is often impossible to deny the value of the historic work.” At this point, Nath says, he would prefer to buy a miniature than something new.

That is why Bangalore’s Ankush Dadha says the auction house, Bid & Hammer, on whose board he sits, has an advantage—it sells everything from coins to books and paintings. As interest swings away from contemporary art, it goes in directions the auctioneer can cater to. He says Bid & Hammer started by selling only contemporary and modern art but realised the market was looking for much more. The auction house has seen a shift of around 60% in customer interest and spending from contemporary Indian art to artefacts, including old glass, colonial furniture, and rugs. “In this market, you need a full product offering,” says Dadha. Although there are no precise numbers of buyers ditching contemporary for older or more diverse work, he suggests collectors are definitely looking for more stable value.

Consequent to this diversified interest is the creation of a wider seller market. “With contemporary art, the buyer feels a connection with the work and wants to buy it or the signature,” says Dadha. “But with older art and artefacts, a person may realise the monetary value of something at home after seeing similar items on sale. Raj-era work or older paintings, rugs, and coins have a wide appeal. We should not forget that Indian art goes back thousands of years. What we call contemporary or even ‘masters’ is merely a hundred years old or so. So we are seeing an expansion of interest.”

Says Singh, “When a collector buys a work for Rs 10 lakh, but the artist’s price falls to Rs 6 lakh, the collector feels cheated. Then they turn to pieces that will never lose value because the hands that created them will never return.”