India has many enthusiastic art collectors. They are individuals who are known for their private collections of art. Art collectors bid on artworks at auction houses around the world, like Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Below are a few famous art collectors of India.

1. Om Prakash Jain:

He is an art collector, patron, and philanthropist from India. He is the Founder-President of the Sanskriti Pratishthan, which runs the Sanskriti Kendra Museums in Anandagram, Delhi, and was established in 1979. Sanskriti Museums is a collection of three museums, including the Museum of "Everyday Art," the Museum of Indian Terracotta, and the Textile Museum.

2. KIRAN SHIV NADAR:

Kiran is a philanthropist and an art collector from India. When she was buying furniture for her home in 1988, Nadar became fascinated with collecting artworks. To house her extensive collection of paintings, Nadar decided to open her own museum in 2005. The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art now receives over 100,000 visitors each year. According to Gaurav Bhatia, managing director of Sotheby's India, Nadar's museum has made "some incredible artwork accessible to common citizens". Bhatia also acclaimed that Nadar's collection is "a wonderful mix of instinct, study and enthusiasm". Nadar is considered the ‘maharani’ of the Indian art world thanks to her collection of 5,500 and more modern Southern Asian arts.

3. ABISHEK PODDAR:

He is a businessman, philanthropist, and art collector from India. Since the early 1980s, Poddar has built up a huge collection of South Asian art, craft, and antiquities, including modern and contemporary art, which is considered one of the world's most valuable collections on the subcontinent by Christie's. In 2018, Poddar donated the largest of the family's collection to the Bengaluru Museum of Art and Photography, a project that the family still supports. Forbes Magazine called him one of Asia's Heroes of Philanthropy in 2018. Poddar serves as the Founder-Trustee at the Museum of Art & Photography, a unit of the Art & Photography Foundation. MAP is a museum in Bangalore that has opened in 2020. Poddar and his family donated $7 million to the Museum of Art & Photography in Bangalore, as well as 7,000 items from their personal collection. It has more than 18,000 artworks, ranging from modern and contemporary Indian art to photography and popular culture, as the first major private art museum in India's tech region.

4. SHALINI PASSI:

She is a Delhi-based Indian arts patron, philanthropist, artist, and art and design collector. Shalini's art collection includes works by Indian contemporary artists such as Riyas Komu, M. F. Husain, Anita Dube, Zarina Hashmi, Subodh Gupta, and Atul Dodiya, as well as international artists such as Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, and Vladimir Kagan. Passi held a well-received exhibition entitled 'The Warp and Weft of Perception’ and a solo art exhibition of paintings titled "Through my Eyes" at the Visual Arts Gallery in New Delhi.

The count of art collectors in India is still very low, due to a lack of art education and awareness among the Indians. Even the affluent class who can afford to collect art might not do so because of the lack of confidence in investing in this asset. To know about the step by step process of collecting art, read here, while if you want to know whether your next buy should be art or a luxury car, read this article. 

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