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Kiran Nadar’s Ambition to Put Indian Art On the World Stage

The collector and patron is bringing the country's art to the Venice Biennale, an exhibition at Christie's London and the U.S. via a cross-regional partnership with MoMA.

India’s rise in the global art market has been well-charted, though it’s perhaps less well-known that mega-collector and patron Kiran Nadar has, in part, led the charge. She was able to bring in Manuel Rabaté, the longtime director of Louvre Abu Dhabi, as the director of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) ahead of the unveiling of its landmark building spanning more than one million square feet in Delhi. Set to become the largest integrated cultural center in India, spanning centuries and categories in both spatial and acquisitive scope, the museum will have multiple exhibition spaces, a performing arts center, a library and archive center, an education center and several restaurants.

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In addition to opening India’s first private institution dedicated to modern and contemporary art, Nadar has also been behind some of the recent records for Indian artists, most recently buying M.F. Husain’s record-breaking large-scale 1954 painting Untitled (Gram Yatra), which sold for $13.8 million at Christie’s New York last October. On the occasion of the opening of Nalini Malani’s striking show “Of Women Born” at Magazzini del Sale, an official collateral event of the 2026 Venice Biennale supported by KNMA, Observer sat down with Nadar—who is arguably one of India’s most influential arts patrons—to discuss her vision and priorities.

Nadar’s museum has been in the making for years, but finding the right space took time. KNMA, a non-commercial, not-for-profit institution supported by the Shiv Nadar Foundation, dates back to 2010. “It was not an immediate decision to start a museum. It had been there on the annual agenda for a long, long time,” she clarified. “We had another space that didn’t work out, and we had an architectural committee that decided on the architect for the project, and that was given to David Adjaye at Adjaye Associates. The work started about four years ago.”

But why build a museum of this size? “I think it’s important. We have a large collection today, and I want the collection and art to be visible to all sections of society, not just to the affluent, but going down to laypeople as well,” Nadar candidly replied. “That is why the space is as large as it is. We have a museum and a cultural center in the space, so we are going to do a lot of cultural activities........

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