Voices Devdutt Pattanaik Neha Sinha Shampa Dhar-Kamath Ravi Shankar Luke Coutinho Mata Amritanandamayi THE new sunday express MAGAZINE Buffet People Wellness Books Food Art & Culture Entertainment February 15 2026 SUNDAY PAGES 12 The Great Indian Art Mafia Unscrupulous gallerists and art dealers are teaming up with forgers to create a multimillion-dollar market for gullible buyers T By Dr Alka Pande he film The Price of Everything says it all. Made in 2018, it is an American documentary film directed by Nathaniel Kahn, which brings forth the deep connections between the artist, the curator, the gallerist and the auction house. The artists featured are Jeff Koons, George Condo, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, and Larry Poons. What the film portrays is the deep nexus between the key players, which includes the curators, artists, auction houses, and the galleries. Cartels emerge, and then there are smaller individuals who work like minor dons, followed by dealers and agents who are in the secondary market of art. This is very much a feature of the contemporary Indian art market. Similar structures and trends are emerging in the Indian art market today A brief overview of the period between 2015 and 2025 shows a clear shift in . market character. Around 2015, the market was strong but selective, with top works typically priced between `5-25 crore and very few crossing the `30-40 crore threshold. A key moment was Tyeb Mehta’s The Celebration, sold for `15 million at a Christie’s auction in 2002, which helped establish a new high-value benchmark in this range. Since 2015, the Indian art market has expanded to over `3,000 crore, with projections of `10,000 crore by 2030, indicating structural growth rather than a momentary boom. Between 2023 and 2025, the market entered a record-breaking phase, with multiple works crossing `50-100 crore. Amrita Sher-Gil’s works have crossed `56-60 crore, while MF Husain’s Gram Yatra (1954), a monumental 14-ft, 13-panel oil painting depicting rural Indian life post-independence, sold for approximately `118 crore in 2025 at Christie’s, acquired by the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), currently the highest price achieved for an Indian artwork. The painting was originally bought by a Norwegian, Dr Leon Elias Volodarsky a , thoracic surgeon and art collector who worked for the WHO in 1954, in Delhi, for `1,400, which he kept for 70 years and ultimately donated to an Oslo Hospital, where it remained unseen till 2025. The painting’s rise from earlier Husain benchmarks in the `5-15 crore range reflects the sharp expansion of the market ceiling to `50-120-plus crore. Modern masters The India Art Fair, 2026, had 135 exhibitors continue to dominate demand; their works accounted for nearly 39 per cent of total auction value, and modern art sales grew by about 23 per cent in 2024. Price growth across major artists illustrates this structural escalation. Raja Ravi Varma’s Radha in the Moonlight sold for about `20 crore in 2016, while Yashoda Krishna reached approximately `38 crore in 2023. Amrita Sher-Gil’s Self Portrait sold for around `17 crore in 2015, compared to `61.8 crore for The Story Teller in 2023. Tyeb Mehta’s works moved from `11-20 crore levels in the early 2010s to `61.8 crore for Trussed Bull (1956) in 2025. SH Raza’s record rose from `16.3 crore for Saurashtra (2010) to `51.75 crore for Gestation (2023). FN Souza’s Birth fetched about `26.4 crore in 2015, while Houses in Hampstead reached `66.9 crore in 2025. Jagdish Swaminathan’s market expanded from sub-`1 crore estimates in the mid-2010s to nearly `40 crore for Homage to Solzhenitsyn (Triptych) in 2025. MV Dhurandhar is also receiving renewed attention, with Draupadi Vastraharan (1934) selling for `8.04 crore in 2022. Why the price rise of Indian modern masters? 1. Rise of Indian wealth and a new domestic collector base 2. Global institutional recognition and international demand. As Indian modernism enters major museum collections, biennales, and global art fairs, international art collectors have revalued these artists 3. Scarcity of museum-quality works 4. Art historical importance and canon consolidation. Works which represent key stylistic moments command the highest price, i.e. Raza’s Bindu period 5. Auction ecosystems, marketing and digital expansion 6. Cultural nationalism. As in the case of Rabindranath Tagore and Raja Ravi Varma, certain modern masters have a kind of branding Trophy nationalism of MF Husain, a rare abstraction for VS Gaitonde, global demand for FN Souza, canonical value for SH Raza, and an aggressive auction competition for Tyeb Mehta, all the above illustrate the economic, cultural and art historical factors which have collectively reshaped the present-day valuations. One of the gravest concerns today is the growing scale of forgery and authentication fraud. Globally art , forgery is estimated to cause losses of $6 billion annually roughly 10 per , cent of total market transactions. Experts noted that the rising prices of modern masters have made them prime targets for forgery Closely . connected is the provenance crisis. The Indian art market today is a robust market for the masters, which at the moment, is fraught with fakes and a growing overpriced market of contemporary masters, a market for popular, affordable art, an emerging demand for folk, particularly tribal art, and an emergence of conceptual art, which is quite derivative but still has an increasing audience. The recent controversy of the 2025 India Art Fair, where works attributed to MF Husain and FN Souza were questioned, made nearly 25 per cent of collectors feel concerned about fakes. The problem is compounded by poor ownership documentation, counterfeit certificates, weak archival records, and the absence of a centralised art registry or regulatory oversight, especially in the secondary market for deceased artists, where financial stakes are high. At the same time, structural and economic pressures are adding to market instability Forgers now use . period-accurate materials, fabricated histories, and digital tools, increasing reliance on scientific and AI-based authentication, even as the art world remains cautious about fully trusting technology Market confidence has . also weakened. The Art Basel & UBS Global Art Market Report 2025 noted a 12 per cent decline in global sales in 2024, with a 39 per cent drop in transactions above $10 million, signalling cooling at the top end that typically sets price benchmarks. Art also remains an illiquid asset with high transaction costs, dealer commissions often exceeding 25 per cent, along with storage, insurance, conservation, and taxes. All within a system supported by a relatively small and geographically concentrated, narrow collector base, which has made the Indian art market particularly vulnerable to shifts in confidence and demand. Concerns around authenticity and legal disputes have also surfaced in relation to works attributed to Raja Ravi Varma. The Ravi Varma market has also been affected by broader concerns over fake prints and misrepresented works circulating. His painting, Kadambari, is one of the most frequently reproduced artworks. A major controversy came into light in November 2010 when the Bengaluru-based auction house, Bid and Hammer Auctioneers Pvt. Ltd., auctioned the 120-year-old painting Jatayu Vadham by Raja Ravi Varma. After acquiring the artwork, Nadar commissioned a technical evaluation, which concluded that the painting was a duplicate. Instances of art forgery in India are not uncommon. In 2009, renowned artist SH Raza attended an exhibition of his own works at the Dhoomimal Gallery in Delhi. To his shock, the then 86-year-old artist discovered that several pieces displayed were counterfeit. Similarly in 2008, a Mumbai gallery , owner was arrested for selling forged works attributed to artist Subodh Gupta. Earlier, in 2004, two paintings The Raja Ravi Varma market has been affected by broader concerns over fake prints and misrepresented works circulating. His painting, Kadambari, is one of the most frequently reproduced artworks by Anjolie Ela Menon that had been sold through a South Mumbai gallery were later identified as fakes. The cause of grave concern at the moment is the number of fakes which are flooding the art market. People are relying on auction houses for provenance. The only reliable points of reference at the moment are auction houses like Pundole and Saffron Art. There is a dire need for more experts. “There are three times more art by my father in the market than what he produced in his lifetime,” lamented Kalidasa, the son of J Swaminathan. Art has definitely begun to function like a financial commodity Though . not in the same way like public , securities, shares, and other mutual funds. Because art lacks standardised pricing and liquidity but it is now , increasingly being treated as a store of value and capital asset. The sharp rise in the Indian art Turn to page 2