Corporate houses and art collecting

In October 2010, South Kensington of Christie’s added more than $2.5 million to the earlier sales of Lehman Brothers’ memorabilia in New York, which fetched over $12 million. Many market players termed a frenzied bid for the bankrupted business entity’s assets.

Instead of shunning the firm that suffered from huge losses, art collectors jostled to acquire vintage objects from the 18th and 19th century as well as cutting-edge contemporary paintings, abstractions, photographs and lithographs. They did so in a hope of possessing these treasures coming at a bargain.

In India, a few months prior this sales, there was that piece of news of the RPG Enterprises putting its 3rd generation succession plan in place. It was mentioned than how a painstaking effort was made to gauge the actual worth of a comprehensive collection assembled by Harsh Goenka. It was also appraised for the purpose. This again was an acknowledgement of the fact that art was to be treated as a major financial asset.

Yet art has seldom been looked upon as a corporate investment in India and not many treat art as a bankable asset. Of course, there are examples of corporate entities investing in art through their promoters, directly or indirectly. Some veteran business barons like Ghanshyam Das Birla possessed exquisite miniature paintings, folk art and sculpture. There are business groups like Bennett, Coleman & Co that have tested the market occasionally. Its forays in international auction have fetched record prices for artists like MF Husain and Tyeb Mehta.

The value of art as a collectible has only been enhanced over the years. The worth of groups like ITC and Taj that have invested in art, is quite impressive. The Oberoi group and Leela group have made forays into art collecting. Among the other examples of collecting in corporate spheres are HCL’s Shiv Nadar, the Rajshree group’s Rajshree Pathy and Religare’s Malvinder Singh, among others who continue to buy art.