Galleries exhibiting at an international art fair in Delhi did surprisingly well

Your article on Indian art states: there was a claim of sales worth Rs260m ($5.4m). This is impressive, even after discounting the over-enthusiasm of gallery owners as they reported their takings.......

The only work that sold for Rs 1 million was Anish Kapoor,galleries are saying that sales were tardy,they sold at the most 2-4 works.....there was no gallery that made a sale of more than 1 crore at the highest.Most of them made sales worth about 30 lakhs to the most.

So where does this figure come from??The power of the market bubble is such that everyone believes what is said:Can the Indian Art Summit present a white paper with details of sold works for 250 m??

Market related announcements must be interrogated to its hilt before being blown as a trumpet for future references.A number of important galleries who were there last year opted out this year,those who were there were mostly the Delhi Galleries and no one is boasting about great sales.Not even Vadehras,not even Bodhi Art one of the biggest players in the art mart.What's more Delhi's oldest Keshav Malik was asked to pay Rs.7,000/to speak at the forum.We need to find out what the trumpeting is about.Is it about the income that the Art Summit made??Or the sales of the galleries??There's much more than meets the eye.....lets remember what Peter Nagy said:It isnt about sales,its about networking and connecting.Speculation and pretentious statements of inflated figures can do great damage to India's still nascent market.

Having participated in the art fair - as Thavibu Gallery from Bangkok - I would say the fair was quite a success. It was well organised, and it was just as good as other fairs in Asia we have participated in. Plus there were more visitors, and keen interest in the Southeast Asian contemporary art we brought in, and sales were satisfactory. About 10 lakhs (1 mill Rps) of sales - we are not secretive about it.

Sales is not necessarily the most important aspect. Introducing Southeast Asian contemporary art to the Indian market, and connecting with Indian buyers is just as important. For the long term.