IIM Ahmedabad, Aura Art launch art index to promote Indian artists globally

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) introduces the IIMA-AuraArt Indian art index (IAIAI) to give artists, gallery owners, among others to gauge the change in value of art over the years. This art-index is in collaboration with Aura Art Development Pvt Ltd was launched today, November 24, 2022.

To have a general pricing model, the IAIAI will serve a constant-quality art price index. This index has been designed by using data-driven methodology that analyses price variations in artwork auctions of top 25 Indian artists across the globe over 20 years. IAIAI is generalizable to a larger asset class despite the sample changing its quality overtime.

IIMA-AuraArt index will offer offer, art enthusiasts, financiers, insurers, and other stakeholders across the sector, data to calculate the percentage change in the likely market price of an artwork over time. Through this collaboration, IIMA and AuraArt analysed the data provided by the former, which comprised auction results of over 9,000 artworks by the top 25 Indian artists that were auctioned around 11 houses across the world from April 1, 2021 to June 20, 2022.

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The top-25 artists considered for the IIMA-AuraArt index analysis

• Akbar Padamsee
• Anjolie Ela Menon
• B Prabha
• Badri Narayan
• Bhupen Khakhar
• Bikash BhattacharjeeFN Souza
• Ganesh Pyne
• Jamini Roy
• Jehangir Sabavala
• Jogen Chowdhury
• K Laxma Goud
• KG Subramanyan
• Krishen Khanna
• Lalu Prasad Shaw
• Manjit Bawa
• Manu Parekh
• MF Husain
• Ram Kumar
• Sakti Burman
• Satish Gujral
• SH Raza
• Thota Vaikuntam
• Tyeb Mehta
• VS Gaitonde

"These artists offered a critical mass of artworks adequate to be included in the index formation. The first batch of data included a total auction price worth INR 45 bi (approx. $0.75 bi @ ₹60/US$) for the whole sample period," read the IIMA press release statement. Both the parties have agreed to publish quarterly price indices updated twice a year as of 2022. The index will be hosted as a part of IIMA’s Misra centre for financial markets and economy.

The programme algorithm was ideated by IIMA, professor, Prashant Das. Speaking about the art index he said: “As an asset class, art has a great similarity with real estate: Each asset is unique, and the market is stratified. Even if produced in multiple copies, the products are not identical. Clubbing such assets into a unified price index is an analytical challenge that we attempt to address through this index. The index is broadly relevant irrespective of which quality of art works dominated the sample over time.”

Speaking at the launch, Aura Art Development Pvt Ltd, director, Rishiraj Sethi said: “The Art Index is a great example of a head-heart confluence, which normally results in the best of both. Our collaboration reflects a confluence of IIMA’s analytical prowess and Aura Art's grasp on esoteric factors that drive art value. We aim at measuring heartbeats of the Indian Art market.”