The auction brought together leading names in Modern Indian art, with several works achieving standout prices
The State of Art Report 2026
India's art market has grown nearly 200-fold in 25 years, fuelled by record-breaking auctions and rising collector confidence
The Indian Art story is, not so quietly, unfurling into what many experts call a fairy tale. Consider this: in FY 2000-01, India’s fine art auction market was estimated at around ₹13 crore ($1.37 million). In FY 2025-26, it crossed ₹2,600 crore ($274 million), nearly two hundred times its size a quarter century earlier. Few asset classes in India can claim a comparable trajectory. Fewer still can claim to have done so while keeping their investors delighted and consistently engaged.
The market took the better part of two decades to cross the ₹400 crore ($42 million) mark, reaching that threshold only around FY 2014-15. It then crossed ₹900 crore ($95 million) in FY 2020-21 and has since nearly tripled in the space of five years. What was once a modest corner of India’s cultural economy has evolved into a market of genuine scale and collector capital, buoyed by institutional attention and global interest. The artists once considered niche are now commanding prices that invite comparison with established global art markets. Works of F.N. Souza, Tyeb Mehta or Ramkinkar Baij are commanding prices that would have seemed extraordinary three years ago. Artists like Krishen Khanna and Arpita Singh are marking high auction prices by living Indian artists.
The FY 2025-26 was, by almost every measure, a landmark year. The market crossed ₹2,600 crore ($274 million) for the first time, with 3,622 lots sold, representing a growth of nearly 62 per cent over the previous financial year (see LuxeTrope’s previous issue for a detailed analysis). Average prices surged to ₹72.8 lakh ($76,631), based on auction data. Turnover generated by the market’s Top 50 lots grew by approximately three quarters year-on-year, a record by any standard. In fact, more than 200 artists established new auction price records. The numbers were extraordinary, yes, but what was equally exciting was the renewed interest in materiality and lesser-known masters.
Read the full story in the special ‘Joaillerie Market’ issue of LuxeTrope, on stands now.
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