Arts and antiques in vogue for aesthetic Indians, imports surge 62% in 2024

As demand for luxury goes up, Indians go for aesthetic buys

The lust for luxe shows a shift when it comes to the discerning Indian consumer. From expensive cars, watches, and accessories, the desire for luxury items seems to gravitate towards arts and antiquities. The result is a 61.6 percent surge to $279 million of imports in art objects and antiquities in the first 10 months of 2024, shows a Moneycontrol analysis of data shared by the commerce ministry.

Antiques saw the highest increase in imports, with $79 million of items being shipped to India between January and October 2024, clocking a 376 percent spurt over the previous year's figure.

Paintings were the biggest import category, accounting for $164.3 million in imports, compared with $133.7 million during the similar period in 2023.

Looking East

While the United Kingdom and the United States continued to dominate the trade of art and antiquities, making up over half of the imports at $151.4 million, Korea was the third-biggest exporter to India.

The East Asian country accounted for $68 million of imports, almost entirely in antiquities. Trade from the UK and the US at $79.7 million and $71.7 million, on the other hand, was mainly in paintings.

Indians tried to procure higher-value items from these places. The average cost of paintings imported from the UK jumped over threefold to $946,250 from $274,681 in 2023.

In case of the US, it doubled from $0.5 million to $1.04 million. But Singapore registered the highest increase as India imported just two paintings from the country for $3.28 million each.

For antiquities, India imported six items from Korea at an average cost of $11.3 million each.