IN 1954, renowned Ukrainian surgeon Leon Elias Volodarsky, who was on a UN mission to India, discovered a large painting in a New Delhi art gallery. Spanning nearly 14 ft and heavily inspired by the Indian tradition of miniature paintings, the mural-sized work comprised 13 vignettes in a vibrant, rich colour palette depicting various scenes from a typical Indian village.

The painting, by a then-unknown artist, fetched a benevolent $295 (nearly ₹1,400 then) from Dr Volodarsky, an ardent collector. Within a decade, the painting went on to adorn the walls of the Oslo University Hospital, where it lay in oblivion until its re-emergence early this year in a packed auction room beneath the gilded ceilings of New York’s Rockefeller Center. As the gavel came down and applause erupted, the art world witnessed a defining moment — M.F. Husain’s sprawling, kinetic canvas, Untitled (Gram Yatra), was sold for $13.75 million (₹119 crore, at the then-prevailing exchange rate), setting a record for modern Indian art. The historic sale, executed by Christie’s, cemented the work as the most expensive Indian painting ever auctioned.

A month later, Saffronart’s online auction delivered another surprise: Tyeb Mehta’s Trussed Bull (1956) fetched ₹61.8 crore ($7.27 million), nearly nine times its upper estimate, setting a record for the artist. The price matched the previous benchmark set by Amrita Sher-Gil’s The Story Teller (1937), which sold for the same amount at a Saffronart sale in September 2023. Most recently, on September 27, V.S. Gaitonde’s Untitled painting from 1970 became the second most expensive Indian work as it fetched ₹67.08 crore ($7.57 million) during another auction by the same online auction house.

Once considered a niche interest confined to a small circle of collectors and curators, the Indian art market is now undergoing a remarkable transformation. Fuelled by rising domestic affluence, institutional support, and a new generation of collectors unafraid to view art through cultural and commercial lenses, it is gaining momentum as a serious asset class.

“The Indian art market is on a new high, achieving record-breaking prices at auctions, and artists from the region are becoming a part of global conversations as hardly ever seen before,” says Sonal Singh, chairman at Christie’s India.

“Modern South Asian art is driving the market with works by Amrita Sher-Gil, S.H. Raza, Raja Ravi Varma, V.S. Gaitonde, Tyeb Mehta, Francis Newton Souza, and of course, M.F. Husain. Contemporary art sales are also on the rise, with a parallel rise in global institutional interest in South Asian art,” she adds.

A NEW ECONOMY OF ART

Asign Data Sciences’s India Art Market Report for FY25 valued the Indian auction market at ₹1,620.6 crore in FY25. The figure rises to an estimated ₹3,000 crore if gallery and private sales are factored in, says Ashish Anand, CEO & MD, DAG (formerly Delhi Art Gallery). This figure may seem modest globally, where the art market stands at $65 billion; but it signals exponential growth. “Twenty-two years ago, when the first Indian painting sold for ₹1 crore, it felt monumental,” Anand says. “Now, single artworks are crossing ₹100 crore. The market is growing at a rate few could have imagined.”

Indeed, the report notes a 12.8% annual growth rate in auction sales since FY20. Anand projects that, barring major disruptions, the Indian art market will more than triple by FY31, potentially reaching ₹10,000 crore. “We’ve only just begun,” he says, adding, “Right now, the Indian art market stands at half a per cent of global. By 2030, it would potentially stand at 1.5% of the global market.”

The rise is not just quantitative. According to Dinesh Vazirani, CEO and co-founder of Saffronart, the market has become more mature and structurally robust. “We have a deeper base of serious collectors. Many of the great masters have passed on, so supply is limited, and collectors aren’t parting with their works as often. That scarcity is driving up prices,” he says. Consider this: Tyeb Mehta’s Rickshaw Puller, which was sold by Saffronart in 2006 for ₹4.76 crore, was resold by them in 2021 for ₹20.59 crore. Similarly, Raza’s Earth appreciated from ₹7.75 crore in 2015 to ₹19.2 crore in 2023.

According to the Indian Art Market report, the ₹1-10 crore bracket has emerged as the most dynamic segment of the auction market, growing over 50% year-on-year. High-value sales — those above ₹5 crore — now account for 40% of the turnover. The demand is strongest for works from the 1950s, ’60s, and ’80s, which together constitute 44% of the annual turnover.

The Top 5 highest performing modern artists in 2024-25 are Husain (₹331.68 crore), Raza (₹166.16 crore), Souza (₹115.19 crore), J. Swaminathan (₹84.19 crore), and Jehangir Sabavala (₹75.4 crore). “At AstaGuru, a significant portion of revenue comes from Modern Indian masters as collectors aspire to acquire works that define cultural legacy,” says Manoj Mansukhani, director, marketing, AstaGuru Auction House.

THE NEXT-GEN ART COLLECTOR

Though modern art commands the largest ticket sizes, it is contemporary art, defined loosely as post-1990 works, that is gaining traction by volume. Sales in this segment grew by nearly 32% in FY25, while sales by emerging artists nearly doubled, up 99.3%, “hinting at collector appetite for new voices,” the India Art Market report notes.

Jaya Asokan, fair director, India Art Fair, puts it down to younger collectors who are increasingly drawn to new media design, digital art, etc. “The definition of what is collectable art is also increasing.” She says a new generation of collectors, in the 20-50 age bracket, is driving demand for contemporary and emerging artists. “They also identify and relate to it as it is their peer group,” she explains.

“There is an increase in the number of first-time buyers exploring art as an asset class,” she says. Adds Mansukhani, “Younger collectors are often drawn to contemporary art, not only for its accessibility, but also because it reflects the spirit of their time. While many eventually aspire to own a master’s, they may begin their journey with a smaller painting or a sketch.” He says artists like Bharti Kher, Subodh Gupta, Jitish Kallat, Atul Dodiya, and Anish Kapoor in the contemporary space are getting good valuations at auctions. In April 2024, AstaGuru sold a stainless steel and resin sculpture by Kapoor for ₹9.61 crore, almost double its estimate of ₹5 crore.

For a lot of young collectors, Vazirani says, art is a part of their lives. They start collecting from as early as 25-26. Nearly 30-40% of Saffronart’s clientele is below 40 years old.

While the Indian diaspora once formed the backbone of the collector base, that dynamic is fast shifting. At Saffronart, overseas buyers comprised 60% of sales when the auction house was founded in 2000. Today, that balance has shifted — 60% of its buyers are now based in India. AstaGuru, too, reports that only 15% of its sales come from abroad. “Indian art is a very self-sustaining market. We realised that during Covid-19. Normally, we get a lot of international collectors (mostly Indian diaspora), but when they couldn’t travel, we realised we had so many people from within India itself,” says Asokan.

The decentralisation of the collector base is equally striking. No longer confined to Mumbai, Delhi, or Bengaluru, art is now finding homes in Raipur, Surat, Jaipur, and Chandigarh. There is a kind of market democratisation with art fairs and pop-ups expanding into these cities. “Regional collectors are no longer outliers; they’re being courted by galleries and art fairs alike,” says Asokan. India Art Fair’s most recent edition — its largest yet — welcomed a record 120 exhibitors and collectors from across the country, including Tier II towns. Vadhera Art Gallery, a mainstay of the country’s art scene, reported selling 90% of its booth on the first day, with prices ranging from $2,500–300,000.

BUILDING A CULTURAL LEGACY

The surge in interest is not merely transactional. For many collectors, especially in the country’s upper echelons, collecting has become a marker of cultural responsibility and social standing. “People want to collect art and build their cultural legacies,” says Mansukhani. Ashish Anand agrees. “It’s become a matter of pride. You haven’t arrived unless you have serious art on your walls.”

That shift is also reflected in the institutional landscape. The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art is expected to open its standalone building in the Delhi-National Capital Region by 2026, with the scale and ambition of a major international museum. Meanwhile, Mumbai’s Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, which includes four floors of dedicated exhibition space, has already positioned itself as a key node in the region’s cultural calendar.

Exposure on the world stage is growing, too. Indian artists now feature regularly in exhibitions at the Tate in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Venice Biennale. With increasing global visibility comes a broader, more diverse collector base.

From elite galleries of Manhattan to living rooms in Raipur, the works of Husain, Raza, and their contemporaries are not only surviving — they’re flourishing. And with a new generation of collectors stepping forward, Indian art appears poised for a movement.