Art Club canvas

Opening new avenues for art is The Art Club launched by art connoisseurs Ardeshir B. K. Dubash and Kayan Pandole. Buying good art is not spending money but investing it. It is transferring your assets, they believe.

Providing the detailed picture, Pandole explains that The Art Club offers an opportunity to art lovers and investors alike to be the collective owners of good works, without the risks of buying fakes or incurring maintenance and restoration costs. You would be maximizing the returns as well as spreading the risk by investing through a panel of art experts, she says. An avid art collector herself, Pandole specializes in the conservation and restoration of oil paintings.

Like a mutual fund, The Art Club proposes to collect capital from individuals or corporates and use that capital to buy and sell works of art, including paintings, sculptures, tapestry, etc. The art portfolio so created would consist of the works of established and emerging artists. There would be a strong focus on identifying upcoming artists who have the potential to add greater value to the portfolio, states their press release. "The layman may not be able to differentiate good quality from bad, what should be the correct purchase price, whether or not or when to sell a painting,” Pandole explains.

Pandole: promo­ting art investment

Overseeing the management of the fund is the board of advisers consisting of Dubash, Pandole, Berjis Desai, Yezdi Bhagwagar, Niyatee Shinde and Sanjoy Bhattacharya, providing broad based expertise in the art, legal and accounting fields. Dubash is the founder and chairman of the Concern India Foundation, a trustee of many charitable trusts and foundations and is on the board of public companies. Pandole, an art history major from Lawrence University, USA, moved back to India in 1995 and set up her studio specializing in the conservation and restoration of paintings. She has undertaken work for major auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s, art galleries and private collectors. A degree course in art conservation and restoration in Florence, Italy has honed her skills in the field. Desai, who is a solicitor and advocate, is the managing partner of J. Sagar Associates, a national law firm with more than 75 lawyers and offices in Bombay, Delhi and Bangalore. Bhagwagar is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. His firm Y. K. Bhagwagar and Company specializes in foreign exchange matters, real estate and company law, besides the traditional areas of audit and taxation. Foreign banks, international companies and Government of India undertakings figure in their roster of clients.

Shinde is a well-known and vastly experienced art critic and writer. Her earlier position as director and curator of the Birla Academy served to strengthen ties with artists, collectors and connoisseurs. As chief investment officer with HDFC (Housing Development Finance Corporation) Mutual Fund, Bhattacharya supervised the management of an investment portfolio amounting to Rs 16,000 crores.

Evaluating the technical aspects would be the art expert committee consisting of Shinde, Pandole and Sharan Apparao who founded Apparao Galleries in Madras back in 1984 to promote contemporary Indian art. Apparao Galleries stocks a range of renowned artists and caters also to the demands of the Indian diaspora, notes their write-up. The art expert committee would ensure that the portfolio of paintings are stored in a professionally managed warehouse, temperature and humidity controlled, Pandole brushes in the background. Valuation would be done annually by renowned art expert Dadiba Pundole, she adds.

Set up as a private trust, the promoters of The Art Club will act as trustees. The investors (contributors of capital) will be the beneficiaries of the trust. The income derived from portfolio management will be tax free in the hands of investors, as the fund will pay all taxes relating to the sale of art works, details their press release. Profits will be shared, with 80 percent to the investors and 20 percent to the trust. With a minimum contribution of Rs 20 lakhs from investors, the expected fund size is in the region of Rs 25-30 crores.

"The concept will promote artists and the art scene. The greater the interest, the more the trade. A vibrant market is good for everyone,” Pandole paints the picture.