Rs 2.3 crore. Yes, that’s the worth of paintings sold at the Bowring’s contemporary art sale in November 2001. They sold a Gaitonde for Rs 23 lakh, Vivan Sundaram’s work from 1998 that had fetched Rs 2,10,000 at the Timeless Art auction in 1989 got sold again for Rs 10,69,500 and a Roerich fetched Rs 20,12,500.

In 2002, Christie’s sold Gujarat-born artist Tyeb Mehta's Triptych at an auction in New
York for Rs. 13.8 million. A few months later an M F Husain was sold for Rs 20 million and this March, at the Sotheby's auction in New York, Francis Newton Souza’s Mystic Repast fetched over Rs 60 lakh.

Art is now an investment that can fetch you handsome returns. Prices have tripled over the last couple of years with the emergence of enthusiastic collectors in the Indian set-up. Compared to the other Asian countries, Indian art is fetching a higher price. Prices have catapulted to surprising escalations. Christie’s sale of Indian art in December 2001 in Hong Kong was a 100 per cent sell out.

However, there was hardly any discrimination in rare pieces by
Gaitonde and some mediocre works by well-known names. A water colour by Arpita Singh got sold for Rs 3 lakh and an early work by Atul Dodiya fetched Rs 5 lakh. That is bound to happen, say art connoisseurs. Most investors in art go by ‘names’, they are totally clueless about the worth of that particular work of art. No doubt an infrastructure is lacking to provide counselling to the investors so that the indifference to good work and inclination to established names is diluted. In an effort to bridge this lacuna ISB recently organised a talk on understanding art for its students and Citibank has tied up with an art gallery in Chennai to educate its patrons on the finer nuances of paintings.

Along with international interest in Indian art, a new category of buyers emerged in the last few years: NRIs. As the returns from conventional investments are pathetic and indefinite the NRIs have been identified as the chief investors in art during troubled times. Another reason for investing in Indian art is the NRI’s constant search for a connection with his roots and seeking cultural familiarity in visual representation. Due to this a gradual outflow of quality art work took place that went beyond the reach of resident collectors. Online auctions helped the NRIs zero in on a good buy.

All this is good news for artists. Besides the big favourites, the generation next is also benefited as prices have escalated for the works of Jogen Chowdhary, Bhupen Khakkar, Nilima Sheikh and Nalini Malani. But the demand for the works of established artists has spawned another lucrative business: faking art works. The fact that works of arts can fetch astounding amounts is lureenough for the fakers.

Art today has become like a blue chip stock, but just like the stock market, it comes with its vagaries. Buyers opt for the same handful of established names. Galleries are also troubled by the select list of 5-10 artists chosen by the collectors and the preference of financial gains over an aesthetic understanding.

It is questionable as to how long can markets energized by voracity rather than knowledge sustain creativity.