My friend, Jutta who lives most of the year in Delhi, has been predicting a surge in Indian Contemporary Art for years, writes Mrs. M.  She says that modern Indian art is about ‘old India versus new India.'    And it's too late to rush out and start buying it up.  The prices have already soared.

Next year in the UK alone there will be major group shows of Indian art at the Serpentine, the Saatchi Gallery and at the Saatchi of the North, Frank Cohen.   First there was Britart (1990s) then more recently the craze for Chinese contemporary, and now the stage is set for Indian.

The market has gone from being small and local to big and international, with prices multiplying 50 times since 2000.  A work by Subodh Gupta, called the Damien Hurst of new Delhi, that cost 25,000 euros five years ago is selling today for 250,000 euros. Gupta has reached the $1,000,000 milestone in private sales in New York.

With the current economic boom in India, many Indian collectors are buying up works by native artists.  There are 150,000 dollar millionaires.  Personally I haven't been tempted.  I saw a show at Sotheby's in London two years ago and didn't see anything I really liked.  Jutta says I had better wake up.  The Indian market is here to stay, big time.