Indian art: searching for the colour of money

While nearly three out of five art galleries in South Asia are located in India, the country's art market struggles, primarily due to lack of art awareness and artificially inflated prices.

Auction houses are another prominent source of art, though compared to art galleries, their share of the art market is far less.

One third of India's art auction market is controlled by the British auction houses, Christie's and Sotheby's - though the former no longer does live auctions in India, focusing only on online auctions.

A brute majority of art bought through auction houses dates to the time period between the 1860s and the 1970s - known as modern art - comprising celebrated artists like Raja Ravi Varma of the 19th century and M F Husain in the 20th century.

However, auctions also mean an inflation in prices of artworks and even India's ultra-HNIs are increasingly becoming price conscious when they buy art - with the average spend per year being Rs 7.5 lakh.