For the first time in India, a real-estate enclave has roped in an artist to create additional value — but can it be measured in monetary terms?
We collect art; we buy real estate; but is there common ground for the two to meet? On the face of it, they are not mutually exclusive, for any art needs real estate to give it context. But is their value calculated when conjoined, or separately? And how does it engage buyers investing in a residential real-estate project in Gurgaon that promises to rewrite the rules of town planning within our urban ghettos?
At the centre of this premise is the promoter’s decision to engage an artist who promises to add “soul” to the project — at best, a notional quality, not something to which you can put value to. While art in the development might be easier to put a price on, for its buyers, is it too not merely notional?
At the heart of this debate is the question of how to put value to art that is both part of a development project as well as bespoke, something tailored and built into a few designated villas or penthouses. It has a price point when commissioned, but does it impact resale value? Will escalations in real estate keep in mind the rise in the value of an artist’s contribution? Will there be a separate and additional value for the artworks? It appears, so far, not.
When the Glaxo building in Mumbai was sold, no one considered the value of the Krishen Khanna painting in the foyer, which was later dumped in a store by the caretaker, where it lay abandoned for years. When a fire destroyed a part of Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, a sculpture commissioned by Amarnath Sehgal met with similar fate, and the artist had to wage a bitter battle to have it restored in the public domain. Do hotels, which often invest their properties with larger tranches of art, view it separately when selling or merging with another chain? Does it have any negotiable value given the new promoters may want to change the look — and art — they wish to showcase as part of the newer experience? Did the M F Husain ceiling at the Kanishka even enter the picture when the ITDC hotel in the capital was disinvested to become the glitzy Shangrila? (Husain had loaned these works to the hotel, and simply withdrew them when it did not exercise the option of buying them.) Have the Taj and ITC hotels undertaken any exercise to put a value to their art collections?
The ambitious M3M group which has announced the Ramesh Khosla-designed, Basant Bansal-promoted 70-acre Golf Estate township with art inputs by artist Satish Gupta, raises these very issues. Satish Gupta’s work devolves around the concept of the five elements and is imbued with a deep spirituality. He has bridged the gap between painting and sculpture, textiles and landscaping in his own studio, to recreate a lifestyle that treats nature with respect. The challenge now is to provide the same value to a large township, and to customise at least some of the properties with elements of art that will enhance the value of the homes, but also not dominate the space for buyers who may have their own ideas about the art concepts with which they wish to surround themselves.
Golf Estate will have a built-up value of Rs 15,000 per sq ft (which makes the introductory offer of Rs 6,100 a sq ft hugely attractive), but what is one to make of the value of Satish Gupta to the project’s resale value and escalation over time — and can one divorce the value of art and real estate at such point? Has India evolved sufficiently to pay a premium simply because prime property also has an artist’s name attached to it?
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A lot might depend on how the Bansals promote this aspect of their township. Publicising the artist’s inputs could create a value above and beyond just that of the real estate. The only parallel that comes to mind is the buildings artist Satish Gujral created in the capital between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s — most prominently the Belgian Embassy, and the Mexx farmhouses. The architecture carried the stamp of a Gujral sculpture. Even so, it is unclear how the artist’s premium will be calculated in any secondary market sale. Clearly, the square inch value of a work of art cannot be imposed on the square foot measure of real estate, just as an artist’s escalation in price terms cannot be imposed over and above the value of the real estate.
It is this that makes Golf Estate interesting. The Montreal-based architect has promised a township that will set a benchmark for India. Will Satish Gupta set a similar point of reference on how an artist’s intervention in architecture can result in an extraordinary realisation of value?
These views are personal and do not reflect those of the organisation with which the writer is associated.
