Inside India’s Art Market Boom
9 Jun 2025 6:20 AM IST
If you know anything about Indian art, you’ve probably heard of MF or Maqbool Fida Husain, one of India’s most popular modern artists. Though people compare Husain to Picasso, historically, his paintings have not fetched the prices that Picasso’s do.
Well, that’s until now. The Indian art market is seeing its moment. From 15 crores rupees in 2000, the Indian art market is worth 3,000 crore rupees today. And it’s only going to keep growing. Estimates say that by 2030, the market will grow to 10,000 crore rupees.
I’m your host Kudrat Wadhwa and you’re listening to The Signal Daily. We don’t do hot takes. Instead, we do deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends.
In today’s episode, we’ll learn about what’s behind these crazy numbers of the Indian art market? Are emerging artists also benefiting from this boom? And, is buying art only a domain of the ultra-wealthy?
NOTE: A machine transcribed this episode. A human has looked at this text but there might still be errors. Please refer to the audio above, if you need to clarify something. If you want to give us feedback, please write to us at [email protected].
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TRANSCRIPT
Kudrat (Host): In March of this year, Christie’s in New York sold the most expensive modern Indian painting yet – MF Husain’s Untitled / Gram Yatra. Until now, that painting had adorned an unassuming wall in a hospital in Oslo in Norway.
A Norwegian doctor had bought it in 1954 when he was stationed in India through the WHO or the World Health Organisation. In 2025, over seven decades later, Kiran Nadar, who started India’s first private museum for modern and contemporary art, bought it for $13.8 million, or 118 crore rupees.
If you know anything about Indian art, you’ve probably heard of MF or Maqbool Fida Husain, one of India’s most popular modern artists. He’s also known as the Picasso of India, because they both challenged norms, and practiced the more experimental forms of cubism and abstract art. But, despite that label, historically, MF Husain’s paintings have not sold for even a fraction of what Picasso’s paintings sold for.
Well, that’s until now. The Indian art market is seeing its moment. From 15 crores rupees in 2000, the art market is worth 3,000 crore rupees today. And it’s only going to keep growing. Ashish Anand, the CEO of DAG or Delhi Art Gallery told Business Today in March of this year that by 2030, the Indian art market will grow to 10,000 crore rupees.
Kudrat (Host): My name is Kudrat Wadhwa and you’re listening to The Signal Daily. We don’t do hot takes. Instead, we’ll bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends.
In today’s episode, we’ll learn about what’s behind these crazy numbers of the Indian art market? Are emerging artists also benefiting from this boom? And, is buying art only a domain of the ultra-wealthy?
Sakala: I've been collecting art, uh, since 1999, What started as a small ticket prizes and small ticket items, because we didn't have that much money. Um, I started buying bigger and bigger pieces over the years.
Kudrat (Host): That was Sakala Appachu-Debrass, a model turned art collector. Sakala runs an art advisory company called Artsutra Kurate, where she advises people on what to buy, where to buy and how much to pay for art.
Sakala bought her first piece of art in 1999.
Sakala: In 1999, um, we were, we were, we had just, you know, we had been married a few years and I wanted to buy something that, um, was.
So my mom's family collects a lot of art. We have a lot of people who collect art in my mom's family. So there's an old early exposure to art, but we couldn't afford it. Um, my husband and me were. Asked to go to this gallery called Pandos in Bombay. It's, it's like a blue ribbon, uh, art gallery in Bombay.
we picked up two little ganesha. And the next year when we moved abroad and I came back, I picked up two more ganesha.
So my first four pieces of art were actually, uh, the painter, Badri narayan, and I picked it up for, yeah, 7,000 and 5,000. I still remember the money because it was a lot to pay those days, you know, in 1999. Yeah. And the next year I came back and I paid 9,000 and 6,000 for two of the other paintings. Okay. So, and, uh, they've gone up exponentially.
Kudrat (Host): In 1999, 5000 or 9000 rupees was of course a big sum. But now, Badri Narayan’s pieces sell for 10 or even 15 lakh rupees.
Sakala has been collecting artworks since 1999. Her collection includes work by both Indian modernist painters, so that’s your MF Husain and his contemporaries from the 1950s and 60s as well artists in the contemporary world art scene. Some popular ones in the latter group are Damien Hurst, Brian Donnelly, and Takashi Murakami.
Kudrat (Host): The first thing Sakala always tells her clients is to invest in “good quality” art. But, what is good quality versus not-so-good quality art?
Sakala: So it is subjective. People will turn on and tell you that, but actually good quality art is just simply good quality art.
For example, uh, let's just take an MF husain. Okay? Everybody knows him. I don't need to turn on and talk about him too much, but let's just say the best quality art of MF Husain was a particular time period. Mm, that's true in which he painted the 1950s and sixties was what is called the best time of his painting.
He's painted. He was, he, he painted a lot and not necessarily the best every time because you know, you have good days and bad days, but there was a decade or more than a decade where the guy, where the gentleman, Mr. Hussain, produced excellent art.
Kudrat (Host): One thing that increases the quality, and the price, of an artwork is “when” the artist made it. In MF Husain’s case, an artwork from the 50’s and 60’s will be worth more, since that was his best time, professionally speaking.
Also, another thing to keep in mind is that as the art market is growing, so is the problem of forgery, meaning works attributed to artists which they didn’t make themselves. In particular, fakes of M F Husain, S H Raza and Manjit Bawa are quite common in the market. To ensure that a piece isn’t fake, buyers should work only with reputed galleries and dealers, though that’s not always a sure shot either. A CNBC report said that even big international galleries sometimes kill stories of fakes because they don’t want to damage their reputation. So, buyers should familiarise themselves with the artist’s work so they know what they’re buying, hire experts or authenticators and finally, check the provenance of the piece.
The provenance of a piece is something that also impacts the artwork’s price.
Sakala: Now what is the provenance, the history of an art piece? Yeah. The history of an art piece. Yeah. Who had it before me? Where was it?
Where did it hang? Who? Who owned it? Who bought it? How did they buy it? How did they acquire it? You know what I mean? Yeah. That's called the provenance thing.
Kudrat (Host): One thing that increases the quality, and the price, of an artwork is “when” the artist made it. In MF Husain’s case, an artwork from the 50’s and 60’s will be worth more, since that was his best time, professionally speaking.
Also, another thing to keep in mind is that as the art market is growing, so is the problem of forgery, meaning works attributed to artists which they didn’t make themselves. In particular, fakes of M F Husain, S H Raza and Manjit Bawa are quite common in the market. To ensure that a piece isn’t fake, buyers should work only with reputed galleries and dealers, though that’s not always a sure shot either. A CNBC report said that even big international galleries sometimes kill stories of fakes because they don’t want to damage their reputation. So, buyers should familiarise themselves with the artist’s work so they know what they’re buying, hire experts or authenticators and finally, check the provenance of the piece.
The provenance of a piece is something that also impacts the artwork’s price.
Sakala: Now what is the provenance, the history of an art piece? Yeah. The history of an art piece. Yeah. Who had it before me? Where was it?
Where did it hang? Who? Who owned it? Who bought it? How did they buy it? How did they acquire it? You know what I mean? Yeah. That's called the provenance thing.
Kudrat (Host):
It’s no secret that the art world is snobby like that. If a big shot person buys a painting, and then it goes back on the market, the artwork’s price shoots up, because of that “provenance.”
Essentially, the buyer’s name and reputation matters, a lot.
Of course, the artist’s name matters too, as well all know.
That’s why Sotheby’s, an international luxury residential and art firm, sold Maurizio Cattelan’s ‘Comedian’ for 6.2 million dollars in November of last year. Now, Cattelan is a renowned artist, but that piece of art was just a banana taped to the wall using duct tape.
Youtube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7pPomFdpLY
Kudrat (Host): Now, back to the Indian art market. Right now, it’s growing, exponentially. But, are emerging artists benefiting too? What challenges do they face?
Samira Masudi: I am Samira. I am 26 as of now. And uh, I work as a graphic illustrator. And I completed my masters recently from ambedkar University.
Um, we have a visual arts course and it's the only course looking at a mix of art practice, not theory and I feel like a lot of my colleagues are at a stage where this conversation seems to be at the core of their practice.
Kudrat (Host): Samira told The Signal Daily that her experience of the art world when she was in college is worlds apart from what she experienced in the real world. At Ambedkar University in New Delhi, her classmates and professors appreciated and critiqued each other’s work. But, in the real world, unless you’re already in the art world circles, no one gives you their time of day.
Samira: More than 50% of my batchmates stopped full-time art practice simply because it's, it was just not sustainable for them to consistently apply to places for, um, fellowships.
The problem here lies in, um, the fact that only certain repeated names keep getting these fellowships. But I feel like with the art market there, there's a certain, like circle jerk. I, I don't have a better term for it, but that's that it is what it is.
Kudrat (Host): The Signal Daily spoke to another artist, who is no longer practicing art. They said that “broadly speaking, the boom in India’s art market is more gimmicky and doesn’t translate in a way that makes space for art students to pursue fine arts..whatever increments in grants and artistic spaces.. Doesn’t keep up with the inflation and that it’s a small circle only.”
Kudrat (Host): The numbers we see in newspapers – you know, the 3,000 crore one and so on – are, of course, not reflective of the reality of all the artists in the field.
For instance, big names like MF Husain and SH Raza still dominate the super expensive painting market. And, the people who are buying the really expensive art are the uber wealthy.
But, the kind of buyer is changing, or rather expanding. Here’s Sakala explaining what’s going on to The Signal Daily.
Sakala: So when I first started, uh, and I used to be go, I used to be awestruck and gobsmacked by some of the houses that I have gone to where they would have this seven foot by five foot Hussein painting on the wall very casually displayed over the dining table.
You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. Um, the profile used to be old money. Mm. The profile used to be big corporate houses. Mm. The profile used to be CEOs of companies. Yeah. That profile has changed. Hmm. Because the, a young lot of investors have come into the market with big money.
Kudrat (Host): The younger lot, as Sakala calls them, are your tech millionaires and finance bros.
What differentiates them from the old money crowd is that the latter would buy art mostly for aesthetic pleasure and to create their legacy.
But, for new money entrepreneurs, to them, art is aesthetic, yes. But, it’s also an investment, in the long-term and also in the short-term.
In fact, they’re even flipping art, the way people flip stocks.
Sakala: They're, they're looking at short term gains. Okay. Uh, exactly like how you would buy a share. Yeah. You know what I mean? So that's the way I look at it. I mean, like. I was trying to, I mean, I've spoken to some of these, I call them kids. I, I've spoken to some of these people Yeah. And I've asked them why they do what they do. Yeah. And one or two of them said, well, I'm just in it for the money.
And, and, and it was a perfectly decent answer. Yeah. But, you know, sometimes when you fall in love with what you do, which is buying art, you kind of look at people like that and like, how could you, like, how could you, but then you know, to each their own, I guess. Yeah, but they wanna make money and they wanted, this is a good way to do it.
Kudrat (Host): India’s art market is seeing phenomenal growth, with numbers that will likely keep rising.
One reason for that is the entry of the new rich, who are diversifying their portfolios by including pricey artpieces too. Art is a relatively more stable investment, since it isn’t as subject to market ups and downs. During COVID, for example, unlike most other markets, the art market expanded rather than contracted.
In addition to buying art to diversify their portfolio, the new rich are also seeing art as akin to stocks. They’re buying artwork to flip it.
Now, art might be a solid part of the investment portfolio of the super wealthy, but can the rest of us also buy art as an investment?
Sakala: I would suggest I would see art for a middle class person, yeah. You start with, you start with, um, so it's a gut feeling, right? let's just talk Indian, Indian artists, meaning when I'm not talking about contemporary everything, I'm talking about the gond painters, the warli painters, the madhubani, the pattachitra, you know what, let's, they're all available at 20,000 rupees.
You can get that. Yeah. And you can get beautiful work. Mm, beautiful collectible work, and they're really fabulous pieces. I have some very good colleague hearts in my house. I have some very good in my house, and they're beautiful work.
Sakala: So a middle class person who wants to start a collection of say, 20,000 rupees, should look long term.
Kudrat (from interview): So, but, uh, that's from a perspective of aesthetic appreciation.
Yes. What about your perspective of, uh, monetary gain?
Sakala: Monetary gain also happens. 30 years ago, my mother gave me a. Bronze figure from Tamil Nadu. okay. She paid those days a princely sum of 2000 rupees. Mm. It was money. It was a lot of money, right?
The same bronze figure Today is about 50 to 60,000 rupees. Mm. Are you trying to tell me that you can't hold onto something for so long that it doesn't go up in value and you are trying to flip it immediately? If you're creating legacy for kids, for your family, for your future generation, give them a quality Indian piece.
Kudrat (Host): The boom that the Indian art market has seen is no joke.
The ultra-wealthy — that includes your new rich and the old rich — are primarily responsible for that growth. How buyers see art is also changing, from something that holds emotional and cultural value to a stock which will give them a short-term gain.
At the same time that these numbers are rising, emerging artists are struggling to carve a space for themselves. And of course, the middle-class cannot afford to buy paintings that cost crores or even lakhs of rupees.
But, as Sakala said, that doesn’t mean the thrifty among us cannot buy art at all. There’s plenty of emerging artists as well as traditional Indian artists whose work costs a couple thousand rupees or slightly more.
So, just 20k and a gut feeling can lay the foundation for your collection — and maybe even a legacy.
Kudrat (Host): That’s all for today. You just heard The Signal Daily. We don’t do hot takes. Instead, we’ll bring you deep dives into the ‘how’ and ‘why’ on consumer trends.
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