Click to play videoNew Delhi: The art world in 2007 had all the glamour and glitz. Bollywood didn't shy away from dabbling in paint. And it continued to make headlines, with all the controversies surrounding Husain and Shivaji Pannikar in Baroda.
However, the big question remains as to how much money did art make in 2007. Did it really slip, crash or was it just a myth?
Even as gallery transactions remained largely stable in the market, judgments are usually made from the auction market and that's where the response has been lukewarm, without any steam.
"At one level, there's maturity in the market, while there was great hype of running to buy art. Prices rocketing sky-high, the prices reached between 15-30 lakhs. However, that has reached a stagnation,” says Alka Pandey, Art Critic.
The art fund market that had earlier caught the fancy of buyers for some super duper quick profits has some analysts frowning upon it, only because the star of the year was the Sensex.
"The art fund market generally does better when the shares are down. Today with a lot of foreign buyers coming in, they've managed to cushion themselves because art funds are Indian based," says Suneet Chopra, Art Market Analyst.
However the biggest positive this year was when Finance Ninister said in the Lok Sabha,” I propose to expand the tax base of capital gains to include certain works of art”.
"Ambiguity has been destroyed. Earlier, it was wonderful for people to own art works without receipts, however, hat loop hole has been plugged," says Neville Tuli, chairperson, OSIAN.
2008 trends and tips
"The younger artists are going to do better,” says Suneet Chopra.
"Bankable contemporary names for 2008 are Bhawani Katoch, Suhasini Kejriwal, Raymon Chopra, Simran Mehra, Sonya and Aditya Pandey,” says Alka Pandey.
"Investor must keep a painting for three years and not sell it away. That is the way to play the game," says Nitin Bhalla, art buyer.
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