Art collecting is no longer for the faint-hearted. Chasing quality works, dealers and even artists is now a full-time job. As the art community insiders have decided who the superstars of tomorrow are, there is a mad rush to acquire works of these artists before prices escalate further, regardless of quality, condition and provenance.
The problem has become increasingly complicated with the arrival of the new brash NRI collectors who treat art as an alternate asset category. They buy works from dealers and auctions and promptly dump them back rather quickly in the market for profit.
This has led to a market that is becoming increasingly speculative and predictably dangerous. Last week
