Christie's Launches in India to Tap Growing Wealth Christie's holds its first art auction in India on Thursday, aiming to tap into a budding market for prestige purchasing among the country's fast-growing ranks of millionaires despite an economic slowdown. The inaugural sale of 83 lots in the financial hub of Mumbai features paintings from the private collection of one of India's first families of contemporary art as well as pieces from six of the nine Indian artists deemed "national treasures" whose works cannot leave the country. It is expected to total $6 million to $8 million. Christie's sees the relatively underdeveloped art market in Asia's third-largest economy as fertile ground for growth as part of its international expansion that has included recent auctions in China and the Middle East. While overall Indian growth has been stalling, the number of people worth $1 million or more is expanding and they show no signs of slowing their spending, fueling double-digit growth in the luxury market for the past five years. London-based Christie's is betting that that wealth will increasingly go into investment in art, as it has in China, where the recent Shanghai auction drew $25 million. "There is a need for us to be here," Christie's auctioneer Jussi Pylkkanen said. While China's wealthy have embraced art purchases and now rival the U.S. as the largest market in the world, India's elite have been slower to invest. China and the U.S. last year accounted for 25 percent and 33 percent, respectively, of the $58.7 billion global fine art and antiques market. India did not even make the top five, lumped together with "other countries" accounting together for 7 percent, according to a report by The European Annual Fine Art Foundation. But Christie's is expecting that will change as India's rich - who are already eating up luxury brands in clothing, jewelry and automobiles - train their attention and bank accounts on fine art. India's overall economic growth has slowed to under 5 percent compared to more than 8 percent in the previous decade. At the same time, the ranks of Indian millionaires reached 170,000, according to the research firm Euromonitor. The survey declared India the most dynamic luxury goods market and forecast it to grow by 86 percent in value over the next five years, followed by China at 72 percent, Brazil at 31 percent and Russia at 28 percent. Moving into prestige investments like art is the next natural step in luxury spending, said Euromonitor's Fflur Roberts. "The higher you go up in the scale of wealth, art is becoming increasingly more attractive," Roberts said. It's an appreciation of art and that luxury of being able to buy art. Rajan Sehgal, who manages private banking for Indian nationals for Credit Suisse, confirms that wealthy Indians are increasingly buying art. "Today, art is a very important and an extremely key investment over the years, much more than real estate in some markets," Sehgal said. Indian buyers have been snapping up pieces at Christie's events in London and New York, and the auction house believes the time is ripe to hold its first sale inside India, where it has had a representative office for nearly two decades.