Experts foresee a good demand for quality art worldwide

Here are some facts and opinions to substantiate the broad belief that the art market is recovering:

According to ArtTactic, average auction prices and volumes for modern Indian art are now back to the June 2008 peak levels. Emphasizing the recovery, its recent release mentions: “The current year has been very good for the Indian art market. It’s a remarkable recovery after volumes dropped 63% and prices fell 46% between September 2008 and March 09. The Modern market recovery is also rubbing off on the Contemporary Indian art market, which has remained subdued.”

Anders Peterson, who runs the London based analysis firm, thinks that auctions are now much like a filtered version of the art market reality. Works of high quality, rarity and proven provenance are more likely to sell. And those that do not demonstrate these qualities will continue to fetch lower prices or none at all. According to him, the focus is back on selective established modern artists such as Gaitonde, Husain, Souza and Akbar Padamsee with ‘proven historical value’.

Another report from Art Radar Asia concurs that a significant change from the earlier trends is the consistent sales of established Indian modern artists rather than the contemporary ones. However, the overall push in the market performance has helped contemporaries’ sales as well. Art expert John Elliott mentions in an essay: “Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Saffronart sales suggest that the top end of the modern Indian art market is firmly on the rebound after the 2008-09 crash, showing a considerable improvement for India’s leading modern artists.”

Castlestone Management specializing in alternative assets foresees a 40 percent increase in art prices over the next couple of years. It correlates the trend to rising equity prices, terming it a key indicator for analyzing the art markets trends.