Vaccine king Cyrus Poonawalla bagged Raja Ravi Varma’s Yashoda & Krishna with a ₹167.2 crore bid on 1 April, setting a new record and proving that modern Indian art retains its shine even in the backdrop of uncertainty and war.
The auction of the late-19th-century oil painting demolished the previous record set by MF Husain’s Untitled (Gram Yatra) last year, when it was sold to philanthropist Kiran Nadar for about ₹118 crore. The sale, conducted by Mumbai-based auction house Saffronart, reflected the current dynamics of the art market, where competitive buying has remained resilient, with collectors increasingly treating art as an appreciating asset alongside real estate and precious metals.
India's secondary art market has demonstrated remarkable resilience over the last few years, weathering a pandemic and two major wars. It swelled from around $120 million in 2019 to an estimated $150 million in 2022, a Saffronart executive earlier said, citing industry estimates. It grew further to about $192.7 million in 2025, and in the first half of 2026 alone, the market has already recorded sales worth $175 million ( ₹1,530 crore), according to data from technology-driven art platform AsignArt.
Art as asset class
“As a family, we have invested over the last two decades internationally and in India, and focused on the best artists and the best subjects that they are known for, and this has always done well. It is a major asset class for us when we look at investing from the family office,” said Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd, the world's largest vaccine-maker, and son of Cyrus Poonawalla.
Why do families invest in art as an asset class amid crises? "It is always considered safe like gold and silver,” said Poonawalla.
Harsh Goenka, chairman of RPG Enterprises and an art collector, said his views on art as an investment have taken a U-turn.
“I thought investment in art would be impacted in a downturn, but I was proven wrong during the pandemic. I thought the prices would go down, but instead they shot up against my expectations.”
The chairman of the tyre-to-IT industry conglomerate noted that over the last four years, there has been a notable rise in buyers, with many new bidders. However, he cautioned that if stocks plummet due to the US-Iran war, disposable income will be hit, which in turn will affect many buyers’ interests.
Disruption-proof
Manoj Mansukhani, director of marketing at AstaGuru auction house, also based in Mumbai, agreed that “periods of war or geopolitical uncertainty do not uniformly suppress the art market”.
"They instead tend to reshape buying behaviour in more nuanced ways. While there can be moments of caution at the speculative end of the market, blue-chip works by established artists often remain resilient, as collectors continue to view art as both a store of value and a cultural asset,” he said.
One of the primary reasons why an otherwise stressful economic period may boost art sales is that discretionary spending on travel and luxury gets redirected to art in what Mansukhani calls “an intellectual and aesthetic pursuit, something that could be explored, researched, and acquired from home".
Days after the West Asia war broke out, Mint reported that Dubai—often seen as the United Arab Emirates’ crown jewel and a safe haven for real estate investors—could face near-term impact across property sales and transactions, investments, and construction. In contrast, investment in art has remained largely unaffected.
“We still do not know the fate of precious art from Iran, Ukraine, and Palestine. In the contemporary art world, this issue is gaining attention because auction houses have not paused their activity—they continue with sales and exhibitions, and blue-chip masters remain in demand globally,” independent art critic Uma Nair told Mint.
'Strong engagement'
While Christie’s does not comment on “political matters”, Damian Vesey, director and international specialist for South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art at the global auction house, noted that it “continued to see strong engagement and robust demand across its global sales, including for South Asian art”.
“We saw outstanding results during our recent Asian Art Week in New York, underscoring strong global demand for South Asian Modern and Contemporary art. The sales (online and live) achieved $29.1 million—the highest total for the category outside India—with works exceeding expectations and multiple artist records set.”
Vesey pointed out that artist Ganesh Pyne’s ‘Encounter in the Twilight Zone’ realized $2.5 million, 10x its low estimate. In art parlance, this means the asset was sold at 10 times the lower end of the auction house's valuation.
“As seen in recent seasons, there is an increasing depth of buyers for high-quality works, with collectors responding to rarity and excellence,” he said, noting “strong early interest” for their upcoming June sale, which will include works by artists Pyne, K. K. Hebbar and V.S. Gaitonde.