India Rising: Art Since Independence
NEW YORK - The blockbuster art deal reportedly went down at the racetrack in Mumbai late last summer. Holding the checkbook: Guru Swarup Srivastava, a millionaire iron-ore exporter who admitted to knowing nothing about art, except that he was drawn to its potential for a “quick investment return.” Making the pitch: India’s renowned artist-filmmaker Maqbool Fida Husain, a rock star of an 89-year-old known for his boundless energy, flowing white mane and keen interest in raising the value of contemporary Indian art. The outcome of their summit, trumpeted loudly to the press: a commission of 100 new Husain paintings for one billion rupees ($21.6 million).
There may be no better example of the giddy investment fervor that is currently fueling the Indian art market. Reportedly it took only 45 minutes for Husain to convince the CEO and art novice to pay, on spec, roughly $200,000 per painting. Pretty audacious, considering that his record auction price at the time was only $107,000 and, according to Alka Singal of New York’s Gallery ArtsIndia, the retail price for his new works generally ranges between $50,000 and $100,000. Unfazed by this discrepancy and confident of an “at least threefold return” on his investment, Srivastava has recently announced plans to auction the works as early as this summer. Hmmm. Let’s see. Historically untested works? Short hold? Maximum hype? I, for one, have doubts that the paintings will yield his desired return.
But it’s easy to see how Srivastava could be bedazzled. Click here for more…
