On May 4, 2010, a Pablo Picasso
painting—Nu au Plateau de
Sculpteur (Nude, Green Leaves, and
Bust), an oil painting, featuring Picasso's own profile hovering over
the reclining figure of his mistress Marie-Therese Walter and against a
blue backdrop with philodendron leaves—set a new world record for the most
expensive art work sold at an auction. The Spanish artist's work, which was
expected to sell for $70 mn to $90 mn, fetched a record $106.5 mn at
Christie's auction house in New York, breaking the previous record held by the
Alberto Giacometti sculpture, Walking Man
I, which was sold in February this year for $104.3 mn at Sotheby's auction
house, London. The impressive amount paid for an artwork, which was
earlier bought by the late Los Angeles collectors Frances and Sidney Brody in
the 1950s, is widely seen as a sign that the art market has recovered well from
the financial crisis that paralyzed the global markets. While not every
artwork could do a Picasso original, the record price paid for the painting does
show that there is a lot of money floating around, with some of them waiting to
go into art.
Investing in art has come a long way over the years. There was a time
when art used to be the exclusive preserve of artists and art aficionados.
Buying artworks then was a passion or a status symbol for a few patrons and
the nouveau riche. However, today, artworks are as good as any other
investment option like blue-chip stocks, gilt-edged bonds, or gold, and can fetch
rich returns. In the last decade or so, art prices have touched new highs,
drawing many financial institutions and art galleries to jump onto the art
bandwagon and float art funds, and India is no exception to this trend. The
Indian art market has been growing at an impressive pace, with investment in
art emerging as an alternative to investing in stock market.
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