MUMBAI : Industrialist couple Mukesh and Nita Ambani, of Reliance Industries Ltd., have named among the world’s top 10 art collectors, right on the heels of Russian billionaire couple Roman Abramovich and Dasha Zhukova and American businessman and philanthropist, Paul Allen. It is the first time that an Indian art collector has made it to the global list.
Since 2015 the Reliance Foundation, managed by Nita Ambani, has funded two art exhibitions in the US. In 2015, the foundation sponsored a show of Pichhwai paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago while in March this year the foundation was the biggest sponsor of the Met Breur’s retrospective of Indian artist Nasreen Mohamedi.
The Ambanis are also planning a museum at the 19-acre under construction Convention Centre at the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, with an exhibition space for traveling art shows. To be opened in 2019, it will include exhibition areas, a 2,000-seat theatre, retail spaces, offices and residences.
According to the website, in.blouinartinfo.com Ambani’s home features several “modern and contemporary artworks, nearly all Indian, from earthy abstracts by M.F. Husain to the gold orb sculpture by Anish Kapoor that hangs in her living room. She recently commissioned Subodh Gupta to create a 9-foot-long installation using metal and brass cooking vessels to create a map of Mumbai.”
