Crown’s 27-year presence in India has spread across 13 locations, including New Delhi, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Indore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar, and Kolkata. They have recently opened a 27,616 sq. ft facility in Mumbai – a testament to the thriving art scene. In an interaction with ET Panache, Harvey sheds light on the Indian art scene, what excites her most about her role and what goes into storing high-end art.
India On The Map
The origin of Indian art can be traced to prehistoric settlements in the 3rd Millennium BCE. These were some forgotten artworks and artists, but the South Asia market is gradually picking up and we are noticing changes in how an artwork is valued, priced and auctioned. Artist Amrita Sher-Gill’s ‘The StoryTeller’ valued at USD 7.5 mil) is a moot case in point of just how popular it is. West and North India appears to be lucrative and in the art radar as of now. But we do notice signs of pick up in the South soon.
Young Collectors
Awareness is being created of late by young collectors, who have evinced interest in investing in art as a diversification tool. Intuitively we visualise that along with stock options, firms may provide art as an investment option and with the advent of this culture, we can demonstrate a ready and secured art vault facility just right for such collection and storage.
Art And The Collector
These are highly valued one’s which need fragile handling, with utmost care and calls for placing it in a specific temperature with appropriate humidity control system all of which needs to be monitored 24*7. Our average customer could be high net worth art collectors, galleries or exhibitors. Once they arrive to view the facility in person, though from a distance, they rate us as the best in town and in the Industry located away from the City. One prospect viewed the facility recently and shared his plan to book the entire capacity for a few years.
Best Part Of The Job
As the newly appointed Global CEO of Crown Worldwide, the most exciting aspect of my role is the opportunity to drive transformation and enhance the exceptional talent within our organisation. We are currently engaged in a journey of transformative change, from reimagining our services to pioneering innovative solutions. The secure storage for fine art which we inaugurated in India is an example. The prospect of elevating our standards and delivering even more value to our clients is what truly energises me as CEO. Our purpose is to “Make life simpler for our customers to live and work anywhere in the world”. It starts with making it simpler for our tenured (most of them have invested more than 10 years of their work life on an average with us),talented and committed in-house team members. We have had several cases of handling high value artwork shipments where escorts were needed 24*7 till it was sent out with our team and security accompanying it till the end.
Protocols In Place
There are some non-negotiable steps we follow strictly. There is a mandate to update the daily record of humidity level. We have CCTV camera and 24*7 security, our vault is air conditioned; temperature controlled and has a gas suppression system installed. The vault doors are multiple hours fire resistant with fire resistant brick walls. All these benefits make it a state-of-the-art facility and we aim to provide the best for our clients as we say we believe in sharing the passion.
