Guides
Plain answers on buying, selling, valuing and moving Indian art, written by the house.
Guide
A painting makes a lasting gift when it is chosen for the recipient's home and arrives with its papers. Choose by their rooms and colours, not your own taste, and ask about delivery and exchange in writing before you buy.
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Start from the architect's or designer's brief, choose scale for the room rather than the wall, and plan durability and documentation early. Decide where originals matter and where a series will serve.
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Choose work that suits how the room is used, settle who decides and the whole budget first, and keep the invoice, certificate and ownership history on file. Insure the works and ask your accountant about treatment.
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Choose the wall first, then the work. Measure the space, decide who will look at it and from where, and let one strong painting lead the room. Everything else can be quieter.
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A painting is valued by setting it beside public auction results for comparable works by the same artist, then adjusting for period, medium, size, condition, provenance and subject. The purpose of the figure decides which number you need.
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An auction offers public competition on a fixed date. A private sale offers discretion, a negotiated price and flexible timing. The better route depends on the work, your timing and whether you want the result public.
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Set a budget that covers the whole cost, decide between an original and a print, ask for papers that prove what the work is, check condition, and see the scale on your own wall before you commit.
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No single document proves a painting is genuine. A buyer builds confidence from several pieces of evidence that agree with each other: the work itself, a traceable ownership history, published records and an honest condition report.
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To sell a painting in Mumbai, confirm what it is and who made it, gather its papers, obtain a written valuation, then choose between a private sale, a dealer consignment or an auction.
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The Blue Nudes are paper cut-outs Matisse made in 1952, and almost every Blue Nude a collector can buy is a print after them. A print can be a handsome, honest thing to own, so long as you know exactly what it is.
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Under the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act 1972, no private person may export an antiquity or a declared art treasure from India. Other works of art are outside these two categories, but the buyer should confirm a work's status before it moves.
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Before you hand over a painting, ask in writing about commission, ownership while the work is with the gallery, insurance, pricing, payment dates and unsold work. Terms differ between galleries.
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AB / WORKS
Devotional & narrative
Ramesh Gorjala. An olive gold ground carries a broad elephant face in a heavy black outline.
Abstract
Prakash Bal Joshi. A canvas of moving blue: broad diagonal strokes in cobalt, ultramarine and pale sky-blue, scraped and dragged so the surface looks like water under wind, or silk folded o.
Landscape, nature & trees
Chandra Morkonda. A great tree with rounded green crowns, each leaf veined in orange and gold, stands on a golden trunk at the left, over a ground of patterned triangles in orange and saff.
Devotional & narrative
Vivek Kumavat. Two stylised bulls meet face to face on a warm brown ground, set against a dark block pattern.
All works Abstract Figures Devotional Landscape Ravi Varma Press stones
