I recently met up with an art dealer - someone who represents the artist and works for them to sell their paintings and artwork. This person informed me that the main reason why a lot of Indians [ and other interested parties ] are buying art is not because of their love for it but because it is a good investment.

Any artist who is worth his salt, who has sold a painting in the market, is only going to appreciate in value. If the artist dies in penury at a young age, then the paintings will appreciate faster. No benefits for the artists as far as I can see.

Maximum selling paintings are from the genre of semi-abstract and abstract. The more a painting does not make sense to the buyer, the higher it might sell for.

Being an art middleman/dealer is one of the most lucrative career options nowadays. I have seen full-page advertisements of a particular art dealer in the daily newspaper’s city supplement. An art dealer I know personally makes atleast ten times more money than his ad job allowed him.

It’s a good time to be in the market for an artist, good time for Indian art - show and sell. And as far as I can see, it will only get better. I wish I’d get some percentage of sale value when my painting exchanges hands more than once!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 at 12:20 pm and is filed under Art Article, Indian Art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.