The Indian Art Summit approaches and the volume of complaints about India’s failure to keep up with the Chinese in the competition for a vibrant art market rises to meet it like this from Ajay Seth, CEO of Copal Art:

Seth, who will address the summit, says though ‘Indian art matches international art in terms of quality, heritage and archives, the country has not been able to place it globally’.

‘With a market size of $60 billion, where 60 percent is controlled by the US and Britain (with 30 percent share each), China takes up 18 percent of the global share. India does not figure significantly. The Chinese are buying back their art. Hence, the challenge for the summit is to act as one of the tools to position Indian art globally,’ Seth said.

Seth said his ‘art sales support and promotion platform’ has been conducting ‘extensive hand-holding exercise for Indian buyers to walk them through Indian art with literature and awareness programmes’.

India Art Summit spotlight on market, infrastructure (Yahoo!)