Kishore Singh, perhaps the most articulate commentator on the Indian art market, interviewed Christie’s CEO Steven Murphy just before the auction house’s successful Mumbai sale. Murphy’s response to a question about the direction of the global art market and whether the market has emerged from the global recession caused by the credit crisis elicited one of the more succinct expressions of Christie’s global positioning statement:

The fundamental fact is that the combination of the surge in interest in art, combined with the new connectivity available online, has opened the door to a vast population of new collectors globally. This surge in new buyers, which is continuing, far outstrips any modulation in sales that macro-economic trends would affect. In fact, 2010, 2011 and 2012 all saw record levels of sales for Christie’s – and while we won’t announce results for 2013 until the New Year, it has continued to show growth. In the last few years there has been a fundamental shift in the art market which has developed and evolved during this time probably as much as it ever has before; the cultural appreciation for art has boomed, and technology, and the internet in particular, has made Christie’s even more transparent and accessible to collectors anywhere in the world. We have witnessed the coming of age of a truly global art market. We have never before had exposure to so many collectors and our client base is deeper than ever before as people from around the world are attracted to engage in the art market. From £1k to £50m, we serve every level of the market, from London to Shanghai, New York to Mumbai – and everywhere online.

Christie’s in India: Catering to a new community of collectors (Forbes India)