The Navratnas


Old Masters Nabratnas 1Old Masters Nabratnas 2The Indira Gandhi government declared the nine artists above as Navratnas and deemed their works of art “national treasures” through a legislation passed in 1972.The Antiquities and Art Treasures Act specified that from the date of enactment of the law, the works of these artists — some of whom were active in the Indian independence movement as well — were not to be taken out of the country. Most of the works of these artists today are displayed at government-run art galleries in India while around 3,000 others are in private hands. Because of this legislation, very few of the works of art created by the Navaratnas — only those that had been bought by foreigners before the enactment of the law — could be displayed at galleries or put up for bidding at auctions abroad. This is why names such as Rabindranath Tagore and Nandlal Bose have not got the kind of exposure, particularly over the past three decades, that a Hussain or Mehta commands today. This also meant that while the best works of the younger generation of artists began to command their price in crores, the works of the Navaratnas — the few that have been traded or bid for — sold at a fraction of that. Read more of this post

Cut Price Boats


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Just like cars and bikes pre-owned boats can be picked up at steep discounts to the original price.In fact, there is the highest likelyhood of bargains on yachts and boats because the market is itself pretty limited.Also buying a secondhand craft makes sense as buying a new yacht has become more expensive because of the increase in the import duty to about 48% and the rupee depreciation.

Mumbai-based companies like West Coast Marine Yacht Services, Ava Marines and Marine Solutions, which sell imported yachts and boats, also deal in used ones. For example,West Coast Marine has a portfolio of about 20 pre-owned machines, available between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 5 crore, depending on the size, brand, age and the engine hours clocked. Read more of this post

Super Bike Deals


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Perhaps more than luxury cars,superbikes are more your thing?Be sure you can get them at a discount too if you are willing to buy a per=owned machine.And if you are lucky,the previous-owner might have forked out big time for enhancements and customizations.

You could source such bikes from  Shreyans Auto,But the selection is a bit limited.

The second-hand market for super bikes is not organised. The news is spread word-of-mouth and through social networking sites.A good place to start looking for a second hand Ducati,BMW ,Honda,Yamaha or Suzuki superbike is Prince Raj Kapoor’s FB page.He makes anout 20.000 rs per sale.Alternatively you could try to network on bikedekho.com Read more of this post

Luxury Cars For Less


If luxury at a cut-price is your thing,pre-owned luxury cars is the way to go.As these cars lose value fast, as soon as they drive off the showroom, you can get excellent value for money as long as you are not put off by the fact that you are not the first to own the vehicle.And interestingly not many of these vehicles have been driven any great distance and many owners have not skimped on servicing and maintenance expenses.May cars even have expensive customizations. If you’re still hesitating,know that many cricketers,politicians and businessmen are driving round such pre-owned cars.

Of course the best pre-used car to buy,is one where you have a great deal of information and don’t have to fork out a commission.So it’s cars owned by friends and family.If you can’t or don’t want to use this option there are companies like Big Boy Toyz and Shreyans Auto. that manage to sell 150-200 such cars every year on a 4-5% commission.Also official dealers of international cars such as Aston Martin dealer Infiniti Cars in Mumbai buys and refurbishes about a dozen cars each from their clients and sells them in the second hand market, Read more of this post

Private Submarines


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At the Monaco Yacht Show there are 4 companies hawking luxury personal submarines.viz. Hawkes Ocean Technologies,U-Boat Worx, Triton Submarines LLC and Seamagine Hydrospace Corporation.

The submersibles on offer cost from around $1.5 million to $4.2 million depending on their size and underwater range.

U-Boat’s five models equipped with bubble-shaped acrylic windows can hold between two and five people and sink to between 100 meters and 1,000 meters underwater.Rival Triton, which is based at Vero Beach in Florida, is pushing the depth limit to 1,650 meters for similar battery powered technology. Hawkes’s underwater flying machines differ from the others. While his resemble soft-edged airplanes with bubble-shaped cockpits, the others are more like UFOs.

Since storing an 18,000-pound submarine elegantly on a designer yacht is a challenge. Sub owners to have get bespoke boats conceived with subs in mind or, alternatively, invest in a “shadow” vessel i.e a smaller speedboat to accompany the yacht.  Read more of this post