Indian Art Sales Thriving Despite Global Dip

Auction house SaffronArt, which marks its 25th anniversary this year, has been instrumental in reshaping the Indian art market.

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Founded by Minal and Dinesh Vazirani in 2000, it began as a digital-first platform—an unusual choice at a time when auctions were mostly live, and remote bidders participated via phone or representatives. "Back then, Indian art buyers were mostly NRIs," recalls Dinesh Vazirani, CEO of SaffronArt. In conversation with HT's Dhamini Ratnam, Vazirani reflected on how far the market has come. In 2024, the Indian art market stood at $174 million (approx. ₹1,450 crore), compared to a global public sales market of $19 billion (₹1.58 lakh crore). Online auctions are now standard, a shift SaffronArt helped pioneer.

Despite a 25% dip in the global art market—the lowest since 2020, according to the Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report—the Indian market is thriving. Twenty-six auction records for Indian artists have been broken in the past four months alone. Already, sales in 2025 have touched nearly half of last year's total.

SaffronArt itself has posted an average 15% year-on-year growth since the pandemic. At its latest auction, held on April 2, 3, all lots sold (a "white glove" result) and a global record was set for modernist Tyeb Mehta. His painting Trussed Bull fetched ₹61.8 crore, tying with Amrita Sher-Gil for the second-highest public sale price of an Indian artwork.

As collecting grows and speculators retreat, Vazirani told HT that the market is entering a more mature phase. "Collectors are better informed and more engaged now. It's an exciting time," he says. Read edited excerpts...

When the pandemic-induced lockdown hit, SaffronArt started small format auctions with no reserve prices, twice a week, to keep people's interest going. The pandemic wiped out the last of the hesitation to buy luxury products online, but at the start of the pandemic, this was still an interesting idea as people may have also thought, now's not the time to buy and sell art.