For the Summer sales, the auction houses attempted to respond to the disappointing results in March 2011 and had lowered the estimates to try to re-ignite buyer interst. However, the market still suffers from lack of quality supply, and it is still heavily dominated by the Modern category and a few selected Contemporary artists. Marked differences seem to be emerging between auction houses as different strategies are employed to respond to the lack of broader interest in the Indian art market.
The combined total for the three sales (Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Saffronart) came in at $11.6 million which was almost 21% below the lower pre-sale estimate of $14.8 million to $21.2 million, and 18% below the March 2011 result of $14.2 million.