The market is now good for new as well as established buyers and committed collectors

The main strand of recovery as far as Indian art market is concerned has been clearly among the moderns, with India’s record price of £2.4m ($3.5m) being achieved by Syed Haidar Raza, another leading veteran Progressive, at Christie’s in London last year.

Hugo Weihe, who runs the Christie’s auctions, says that the results show it is 'necessary to get the quality and the price right to achieve sales.' Dealers talk about difficulty finding and persuading buyers to offer good works that will fetch top prices and it is also necessary to fill auction halls with potential buyers, which Sotheby’s seems to have failed to do spectacularly this year.

Its London auction on May 31 (badly timed on the morning after a bank holiday weekend) realised sales of only £1,620,150 ($2,678,756) compared with Christie’s £4.3m. It sold only half the works available and failed to move the three highest priced works – by Husain, Raza and Gupta.

Analyzing the scenario, a recent write-up by art writer John Elliott from his popular blog 'Riding the Elephant blog’, mentions: “The market has been flooded with works by Husain and Souza in recent years, which has affected demand. Last summer, Christie’s had a spectacular sale of Souza drawings and paintings that were being sold by his family’s estate. This year there were more works owned by the family, but they did not generate the same excitement or prices.

“Tyeb Mehta, who died in 2009, continues however to score well, partly because his works are so distinctive, often reflecting with strong shapes and colors the hard life of India’s poor, and partly because he was not nearly so much prolific as other Progressives.

“This is not a market for investors looking for quick profits, but it is good for committed collectors, newcomers and established buyers, with the best works selling well if offered at sensible prices. The market is waiting to discover what happens now to Husain – there are many of his works waiting to be sold but it is not clear yet when they will emerge, nor what the appetite will be.”

(Information courtesy: 'Riding the Elephant blog’)