The recently-published Osian?s auction catalogue provides some interesting material on our contemporary art market. It shows that since 1997, the market has expanded from Rs 6 crore to nearly Rs 180 crore today, a 30 times increase. This makes Indian contemporary art one of the best investments.

The range is considerable. But if we look at the ?Liquidity Weightage? index provided by the catalogue, reflecting the percentage share of sales, we find MF Husain towering above the rest in the period of 1987-2004, at 20.83. Closest to him is FN Souza with a rating of 7.04. SH Raza follows close behind with a rating of 6.78 and Tyeb Mehta at 6.4. Here the continuity breaks again. So from these figures, one can conclude that Husain serves our contemporary art market rather as the dollar serves currencies.

Tyeb Mehta?s ?Celebration? that sold for Rs 1.5 crore

When we look at the per square inch rates that reflect quality buying for the same period, we find that Husain does not figure in the list at all. It is headed by Rabindranath Tagore at Rs 5,343 per square inch, followed by Abanindranath at Rs 4,903, AR Chugtai at Rs 3,518, Ganesh Pyne at Rs 3,456 and Gaganendranath at Rs 3,217.

Looking at the broader canvas, artists who sold works at above Rs 1 crore mark are: Tyeb Mehta, whose ?Celebration? sold at Rs 1.5 crore at Christie?s September 19 auction at New York in 2002. His record still holds good. Lately, SH Raza has also topped the Rs 1-crore mark with a geometric work ?Rajasthan? at the recent Christie?s auction in New York in September. It is interesting that Husain does not figure in this bracket. His colleagues of the Mumbai group have outstripped him in individual sales. In works between Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore, Christie?s sold a horse study of Husain at Rs 70 lakh, in their September auction, breaking his previous record of Rs 52 lakh at Christie?s sale of 2002, also in New York.

The other artists who have topped the Rs 50-lakh mark are: FN Souza, whose work sold at approximately Rs 69 lakh in the Sotheby?s auction New York in March this year, while JS Swaminathan has recently sold a large canvas at Rs 55 lakh, also at Christie?s New York sales. So, once more, we see the four greats of the Mumbai group: Tyeb Mehta, SH Raza, MF Husain and FN Souza topping the list of art worth investing in.

In the Rs 30-50 lakh group, we have a wider range: VS Gaitonde sold at Christie?s in New York for approximately Rs 47 lakh in September 2003. Ram Kumar sold at approximately Rs 43 lakh at Christie?s Hong Kong sale of July 2003. Akbar Padamsee too had crossed the Rs 30 lakh mark at Christie?s Hong Kong sale of April 2004. Bhupen Khakhar had already done so with Christie?s New York sale of September 2003. Amrita Shergil also sold at nearly Rs 35 lakh at Sotheby?s New York September sale of 2000.

The Bengal and Santiniketan artists are out of this reckoning as they seldom painted large canvases and their larger works just do not come up for sale.

The only artist whose works are comparable in size is Jamini Roy, but he still has to cross the Rs 20-lakh mark. Ganesh Pyne, who sold a work for Rs 17.4 lakh in at Christie?s auction in October 1999, has gone up to Rs 17.9 lakh for his ?Blind Girl? at the recent New York auction, while two other works sold from Rs 13.7 lakh and 10.4 lakh respectively. Pyne appears to be reasserting his staying power after a considerable time in the doldrums. His art is definitely worth investing in, especially the temperas.

The picture we get still, however, is that art worth investing in follows the rule of ?ars longa, Vita brevis,? art has long life while life has a short span.

In other words, it fails to respond to manipulations of the market, except for a very short while. The buyer then would do well not to be taken in by the sales hype of galleries, auction houses and the like. This is perhaps the reason why MF Husian, despite his pre-eminence on the ?liquidity weightage? does not figure as highly on other scales. The ?liquidity weightage? is where the manipulations of the market tell the most.

Our investment chart would read something like: Rabindranath, Abanindranath and Gaganendranath Tagore, AR Chugtai, Tyeb Mehta, FN Souza, MF Husain, VS Gaitonde, SH Raza, Amrita Shergil, Jamini Roy, NS Bendre, Ganesh Pyne, Akbar Padamsee and Bhupen Khakhar.

This would give one a fairly broad range of expression that would include early Indian contemporary art, inspired equally by miniatures and the expressionists, the Mumbai group, influenced by our folk art and Picasso, and of course, our best abstractionists.

With this range the investor cannot go far wrong.