What binds the art and business worlds?

Top companies and industry doyens around the world including are in the possession of immense artistic riches. They collect and invest in art for various reasons. An interesting news report ‘ by AP writer Jill Lawless some time ago had established the perceived and palpable link between the art and corporate world – both in good and bad times…

As it has been observed, corporate entities like to see backing talented artists as a way of fulfilling corporate social responsibility, or philanthropy purpose. They may use art for the purpose of flaunting their wealth. Of course, the trend of corporations purchasing artworks in good times and disposing them off in bad is quite an old one. IBM president Thomas Watson, Sr. gathered works by artists like Frida Kahlo for decorating the IBM pavilion at New York’s World Art Fair in 1939.

Decades later, the cash-strapped company sold its rich collection for $31 million through Sotheby's. Art experts feel it’s unlikely to see big firms selling off works in bulk owing to the negative publicity such events would generate, as it clearly raises a red flag that they obviously must be going broke.

A news report in the New York Times by writer Vikas Bajaj mentioned how the valuable works of art at the prestigious Taj hotel were restored, partly soothing the scars of the three-day siege in Mumbai in 2008, when the city’s landmark was ravaged by fires, gunshots and grenade explosions.

Until the early 1990s its Taj Gallery was one of just a handful of places where admirers and collectors could go to see and buy contemporary art in Mumbai. Other divisions of the Tata Group, which started and still owns the Taj, also contributed significantly to India’s modern-art scene by buying works, especially in the 1950s and 1960s.