Cynics often dismiss the taste for fine arts as an elitist pursuit, but the one event that seemed to be a great equaliser was the India Art Summit that took place in the capital in January. Right from the parking lot – where an S-class Mercedes could be seen jostling for space with the humble auto – to the inside of the 90,000 square feet of Pragati Maidan where a Louis Vitton clad fashionista shared space with an art student listening in rapt attention to S.H Raza’s homecoming speech, the India Art Summit had them all. Over just three days, over one lakh people reportedly visited the fair, eighty-four galleries took part, showing the work of over 500 artists and crores of rupees exchanged hands, with stars like Bharti Kher, Subodh Gupta and Ravinder Reddy fetching highest of reported prices at a fair ever. Those with deeper pockets were also spoilt for choice as several galleries outshone each other with works of blue chip artists like F.N Souza, S. H. Raza, M.F Husain, Jamini Roy and others. Debutant foreign galleries with European masterpieces on show did not go empty handed either – even the catalogues of masters like Auguste Rodin, Pablo Picasso and Hanneke Beuamont were selling like hot cakes.

But people were also buying younger artists, with new media clearly having caught attention of new collectors. Artists like Prajjwal Choudhury (who works with matchboxes), Sheela Gowda (hailed as the new star after the Summit), Tejal Shah (all three editions of her neon light-and-acrylic piece were sold out) and Ketna Patel (her kitschy pop art works had more red dots than she could count) were just a few amongst the many new names that were appreciated.

The action was not limited to sale and purchase though. Thukral & Tagra enticed young and old to a pool table at their booth, where netting the ball got the winner one of T&T’s colourful flip-flops emblazoned with a safe sex message. And at the Religare stall, Julius Mcwan performed for awe-struck onlookers. At yet another booth, veteran artist S H Raza fielded questions about his recent homecoming with great composure as his contemporary and artist-in-exile Husain caused an equal amount of chaos even in absentia. Murmurs about security threats “forced” the representing gallery to remove Husain’s paintings on day one of the fair, only to put them back on the second day under police protection.

Whether it was as a tacit approval of Husain’s presence at the Summit or for a serious love for arts, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who in her younger days was an arts appreciation course student at NGMA, was the most unexpected visitor at the fair.

But then what is a public event without its share of high drama and gliteratti attendees. And there was enough of this at the several events that were happening on the sidelines. The Kiran Nadar museum opened at a new venue in Saket’s South Court Mall with politicos like P. Chidambaram and Sheila Dixit to veterans like Satish Gujral and Anjolie Ela Menon braving the January winter chill to make it to the opening. Many of the artists who attended the museum opening were then spotted at Bhavna Kakar’s late night party to celebrate the launch of her magazine Take on Art’s fourth edition. And at yet another venue, Mithu Sen posed happily with Anish Kapoor as the first Skoda prize recipient for young contemporary artists in India.

Summit to artdom or summit to stardom – now that is the question we would like to ask!