REDUCED PRICE: Subodh Gupta’s work is being sold at a much lower price than it was in boom time

“We’ve turned the corner,” says Dinesh Vazirani, director, Saffron Art, a Mumbai-based online auction house and a key market maker for Indian art. He sees the art market tailing the global economy’s stabilisation just as it crashed following the global financial bust in late 2008.

Menaka Kumari-Shah, India representative of Christie’s, world’s largest auction house, points out that this June at the auction of modern and contemporary Indian art in London, most of the works sold went at more than their estimated prices. For example, Ram Kumar’s Untitled (Benares) sold at more than twice the expected price — for £133,250 (Rs 1.05 crore) compared to the pre-sale estimate of £40,000 – 60,000. “We are thrilled with these results reflecting renewed vigour in the field,” she says.

Still, there is a long way to go for the art market to regain the buzz of its boom years of 2006-2008 when Indian art bagged both international glory and big bucks. During that period, Indian art became a category on its own at Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions in Asia, Europe and the US. Many art funds emerged in India. Works of old and young Indian artists got sold for over a million dollar each. But those times seem like a distant dream at the moment.

Valuation of Indian art, particularly the contemporary art, has fallen by up to 50-70 per cent. The works of the high fliers of the boom period — Subodh Gupta, Atul Dodiya, Jitish Kallat, Anju Dodiya, Baiju Pradhan and Ravindra Reddy — are now going at deep discounts.