Art has a unique way of stopping you in your tracks. Recently, while visiting the C Cube Art Gallery in Thane, I had a transformative encounter. Standing before the works of Prakash Lakshmanrao (P.L.) Rane (1938–2016), I was completely stunned and held in absolute awe. His style, depth of thought, and staggering range of work...
The Velvet Rope Is Moving: Who Gets Into Art’s Inner Circle Now Walk into the VIP preview of any major fair today and the room looks different from a decade ago. The silver-haired patriarch with decades of collecting behind him is still there, but he is no longer the one setting the pace. The latest...
The Speculative Bubble Has Burst And That’s the Best Thing That Could’ve Happened to Frieze Seoul If you walked through COEX during the inaugural Frieze Seoul in 2022, you’ll remember the feeling: pure, unfiltered adrenaline. It was a chaotic mix of champagne-fueled impulse buys, tech-money hype, and international dealers flying in with wide eyes, eager...
Asia Art Council speaks with Arjun Garg, founding member of Cambridge Collective, a Harvard-incubated art advisory firm. Drawing on his experience in finance and his personal relationship with art, Garg discusses the need for greater price transparency, stronger diligence and a more collector-centered art market. Asia Art Council (AAC): Can you tell us about your...
The world of contemporary art has lost its brightest, most eccentric, and unyielding star. Yayoi Kusama, the trailblazing Japanese avant-garde artist whose signature polka dots, kaleidoscopic “Infinity Mirror Rooms,” and vibrant pumpkins captivated millions across continents, passed away peacefully in a Tokyo hospital on August 14, 2026. She was 97 years old. Announced officially on...
A Record-Breaking Auction Redefines the Value of Indian Historical Documents. The antiquities and historical manuscript market in Asia reached a watershed moment this August when an unprecedented archive of handwritten reflections by Mahatma Gandhi shattered expectations in Mumbai. Selling for a staggering Rs 16.20 crore (approximately $1.7 million), the manuscript set a world auction record...
For nearly two decades, the story of the art market in the East was written in a single city.If you were looking for marquee evening auctions, high-stakes primary market debuts, or six-figure gallery transactions, all roads led to Hong Kong. That era has evolved. While Hong Kong remains the heavyweight clearinghouse for mega-tier liquidity, the...
There are exhibitions that simply open. And then there are exhibitions that quietly shift the axis of cultural memory. On June 4, 2026, one such moment will unfold in St. Petersburg, Russia, as the State Hermitage Museum hosts “Sediments of Becoming: Fossilised Present, Summoned Pasts” its first dedicated exhibition of contemporary Indian art in the...
Amin Jaffer with four of India’s five artists — Alwar Balasubramaniam, Asim Waqif, Skarma Sonam Tashi and Ranjani Shettar | Photo Credit: Joe Habben
Every once in a while, the art world pauses.Not for a trend. Not for a fair. Not for another predictable headline. But for a moment that feels… larger. This week, that moment came from a quiet, intimate painting, Raja Ravi Varma’s Yashoda and Krishna,which just sold for a staggering ₹167 crore. Why this feels bigger...