A promising Indian art investment scenario

By Siddhi Jain

New Delhi, March 7 (SocialNews.XYZ) According to the recent Knight Frank Wealth Report 2021, from the vantage of Indian UHNWIs, or Ultra High Net Worth Individuals, after jewellery topping the list of the most preferred passion-led investment, art and watches come in as the second, followed by wine and classic cars. For the worldwide trends however, art tops the list of the 'objects of desire'.

According to Ishita Kheterpal of Masha Art, a luxury art consulting company carving a niche in investment art and wealth management in India, while a lot of industries like travel and hospitality got a big Covid-19 setback,"somehow the art and interior design industry saw a big boom".

"Perhaps so because a lot of people working from home, locked in their own spaces, started to look at their homes differently, they wanted to fill up their walls meaningful art and imagery. A lot of people started to buy," she told IANSlife.

According to Kheterpal, there was also a big boom is artists' creation of art. Kheterpal's company fosters a relationship between those who create art, and those who appreciate it.

"Art is a very good investment and asset. However, I feel that art is not for trading, it's a long term investment. You have to invest in art for the aesthetics. You want to be living with that art for a longer period of time. Nobody buys art with the objective of selling it tomorrow. It will reap you rewards, even 30-40 per cent returns, after a minimum of five to seven years."

"Not all the pieces that we see of masters are worth investing into. Some of them are great, but some of them are not for collection. You have to make informed decision basis research. If one bought an artwork in the 90s for a lakh rupees, it is easily worth Rs 30-40 lakh now. This is a good lesson for the youngsters, who want to create wealth and have big assets at a later stage in life. Investing a lakh rupees in a year in art can really pay off in 10 years!" she said.

Asked about the trends they note in the art investment scenario in India, she says:

"The art preferences that we see today are, the old group obviously prefers the Progressive Group and the art masters. It could be V.S. Gaitonde, Tyeb Mehta, Ram Kumar, Laxma Goud and such artists. For the younger collectors, it is contemporary artists like Subodh Gupta, Bharti Kher, Jitish Kallat, Jagannath Panda, Anju and Atul Dodiya. These are the preferences we see in informed collectors. If we talk about people who want to start their collection, we have Ramesh Gorjala, Thota Vaikuntham, Laxma Goud, Paritosh Sen, Manu and Madhvi Parekh, Jayasri Burman. Paresh Maity is a very big draw, he's really trending, and so is Seema Kohli."

The bottom line? "The full recovery in the business of art, I think, has already happened."

At present, Masha Art is hosting an eclectic display of over forty luxury artworks by twenty of India's master artists of all times, at DLF Emporio in New Delhi, till March 31.

(Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in)

Source: IANS