India is growing in prominence as an art market and this is underscored by Sotheby's deciding to ignite the interest of Indian buyers in New Delhi for its future London auctions. The world's second oldest auction house, Sotheby's infact already started work towards this end and will be putting up a pre-auction of select works of renowned artist Damien Hirst at Delhi's Oberoi Hotel coming Thursday, 28 August.

The proposed London auction of Damien Hirst's work next month is already creating ripples. This is because the artist has offered his 223 art work worth over 65 million directly to public skirting the customary dealer and gallery. Normally it is the special attractions of important London sales that are taken to traditional art market in New York or Paris to generate buyers' interest. Sotheby commented that the interest and knowledge about art in India has increased manifold in recent years.