A Golden Decade

This summer Saffronart sold Jehangir Sabavala’s The Casuarina Line-I for Rs 1.7 crores (USD 374,900),a personal record for the artist. In addition,Saffronart’s mobile bidding technology saw an eager participation. MF Husain’s work sold for Rs 1.06 crores (USD 235,750) through first-of-its-kind mobile bidding application in India. Its Autumn Online Art Auction,to be held on September 8 and 9,promises bigger sales,with artwork of top artists coming under the hammer. “There is a broad selection of works by 43 modern contemporary artists,which comprises paintings,drawings,installations and sculptures,” says Dinesh Vazirani,CEO and co-founder of Saffronart. The auction includes Sabavala’s The Wayfarers – II,SH Raza’s Bhartiya Samaroh and NS Harsha’s Conversing Cleansers.

Dinesh traces his journey with Saffronart and shares,“My wife,Minal,and I are very fond of art and technology. So we thought of coming up with an online forum where we could sell art. No one was in favour of it. Selling art itself was not easy and selling it online meant multiplying the risk. But we persisted. The first three years were the toughest and we spent a lot of money to participate in international fairs to increase our visibility.” Once the collectors recognised them as a transparent company,things fell in place. While Saffronart grew as a company,it also catapulted Indian contemporary art into an item of profitable investment. A painting by Tyeb Mehta sold through Saffronart’s auction in December 2001 for $36,000 (Rs 17 lakh),came up for sale at Christie’s in March 2004,where it sold for over $101,000 (Rs 48 lakh). Similarly,Raza’s Bindu Bija-Mantra which sold at Saffronart’s May 2004 auction fetched almost $170,000 (Rs 79 lakh).

In October 2008,Saffronart extended its online auction platform to host its inaugural sale of fine jewels and watches,adding a new dimension to its online presence. In April 2010,they introduced a new product — Prime Properties. This includes the sale of luxury city apartments and holiday homes,through print and online catalogues. “When it comes to jewellery and real estate,the Indian market is still very limited. People do not know how to reach hole-in-the-wall places to get the best deals. We decided to do that for them,” says Minal Vazirani,president and co-founder,Saffronart.

The couple believes that the strength of the company lies in it’s transparent operations. It was chosen as the subject of a case study at Harvard Business School couple of years ago. Mukti Khaire,assistant professor of Business Administration,HBS,shares,“I believe that Saffronart views its ability to create market structures in previously unstructured contexts as its competitive advantage. They have therefore picked markets like luxury home and jewellery,which in India have traditionally been less structured than elsewhere,” Dinesh adds,“We provide people with a reference price point.”

As the registration for the upcoming auction nears,they are busy verifying the registers. “We need to know where the money is coming in from. It is a long process. Since transactions are done online we have to be more careful,” says Dinesh. The company is also careful when selecting artwork. “Censorship in art has affected us too. We have had angry protests outside our gallery many times,but now we are more careful,” says Dinesh,as he hopes that like the booming art market,Indian art industry will soon be received by a more tolerant civil society.