 |
| Dinesh Vazirani and Minal Vazirani Image courtesy: Verve magazine |
He is a right and left brain-oriented artist. Dinesh Vazirani, founder of India's first innovative online art auctioning firm — Saffronart.com, has a Bachelor's degree in Fine Art and a Master's in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University.
He started the auction house along with his wife Minal in 2000. Saffronart is now a case study in the MBA curriculum of the Harvard Business School. The study says: Saffronart succeeded in creating a market for modern and contemporary Indian art in the art world.
For the Vaziranis, the journey began when they returned to India from the US in the late 90s. Collecting art was their hobby, but it wasn't easy in India back then. There were numerous obstacles and one of them being very little information available to art collectors. The couple would visit galleries, see the artworks, return home and then struggle to make an informed decision. Should we or shouldn't we? "People didn't have any guidance on how to buy art," Dinesh says. And his entrepreneurial spirit realised the potential in this problem and
the obstacles became the cornerstone for his business.
Dinesh combined his love for art and his wife's love for technology, quit his family business — of manufacturing cranes — and created Saffronart.com - an online platform to provide all the services needed for someone wanting to collect modern and contemporary Indian art. It offers art with authenticity guarantees in an auction setting, with transparency in prices and guidance and reference points to art collectors.
"Of course when we started everyone said there's no way anyone was going to buy art on the internet," Dinesh recalls. Since penetration of internet was still a few years away in India, the business began by catering to NRIs. He held large scale exhibitions in Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles, Singapore and London ("So people could physically see the works and then go back and transact on the internet") and a few in India too.
Saffronart was started with an investment of one crore rupees. In 2003 Vazirani realised that he had spent "way too much money" doing international events. "We had very high expectations of the market, but the market didn't pan out the way we thought it would. As an entrepreneur the one thing you don't want to admit is that you failed," he says. So he told himself that he was going to give the business one last shot. "It was unlikely that India would be the only country in the world which would not have a vibrant art market — online and offline. He knew the market was going to improve at some point. He just didn't know when. So, he held on.
He borrowed money from the bank, "sold some personal stuff" and armed with belief and confidence plunged headlong into making Saffronart a success. "There's always an inflection point in any business and in any market," Dinesh says. In 2004 the art market soared. There was exponential growth. In 2006 the Indian art auction market was worth $125 million and Saffronart's revenue was $45 million (Harvard Business School study). And in 2009 when there was a financial crisis and the market contracted, Dinesh was prepared to face the downturn. "It was very tough again, but we had a lot more knowledge and courage to go through the tough period that lasted till 2014."
Dinesh considers Bangalore to be the fastest growing art market in the country; even though it is six times smaller than the Delhi and Mumbai art market. "This city has very strong professional base with its IT sector. It has a large chunk of young people who are aspirational. And art in a way is aspirational," are the reasons Dinesh cites for the city currently being a good market for art.
Interestingly, Bengalurians participate in large numbers in online auctions on the Saffronart platform as well as the StoryLTD platform (established in 2013 by Vaziranis) — the former is for high-end online and live auctions while the latter is for the medium and lower end art works.
Entry of auction giants Christie's and Sotheby's into the market was worrisome for the company. However, Dinesh is still holding his own. In the process, he's learnt a few important life lessons.
- Never give up
- Learn to manage the whole customer chain
- It is important to build a good team (today Saffronart has 70 employees across the world). The team and expertise contributes
- a lot to the success of an auction house.
- Build a business in humility.
Dinesh says the art scene in India is good. "The market is reviving itself. The best of the best in the market are all selling at record prices. There's a feel good factor in India.All that adds to people wanting to buy art." So if you want to buy art — for your personal collection or as an investment here are a few pointers from Dinesh:
» If you are looking at long term investment, go for tried and tested masters. Artists who have been critically acclaimed and have spent 60 to 70 years of their lives painting consistently. Like Vasudeo S Gaitonde, SH Raza, Manjit Bawa, Tyeb Mehta, Swaminathan, etc.
» Don't be in a hurry. Learn as much as you can about the work that you want to invest in. Go to galleries, read publications, surf the internet » Buy from a reputed source so you have some recourse on authenticity.
» Finally, whether you are collecting art for investment or for your personal collection, have fun. "Enjoy the process of collecting and you will enjoy the art that lands up in your house.
As for Dinesh, his favourite artist is Gaitonde. Every morning, he wakes up to a small Gaitaonde paper work - ink on paper and untitled. The beauty of that particular work is in the simplicity of lines, says Dinesh. Almost meditative. "That's the reason I am always calm when I wake up."
No comments :
Post a Comment