kolkata regulation of art funds seems to be on the cards in fact art circles are abuzz with the fact that the finance minister may spring something on this front in the budget with the securities and exchange board of india recently taking a stand that art funds which are dealing in public money should be registered it appears that a regulatory framework could transpire soonthe regulator wants art funds to register with it to protect investor funds in case the system fails or anomalies crop up in the functioning of the funds one cannot deny that the art market is not organised in the true sense for instance art funds can buy or sell artworks at will now besides the prices at which these transactions are struck are not always clear all the funds may not be furnishing records of the deals to their investorssubscribers an art market source told etsince it is not always possible to put a finger on the price of an artwork or artist according to the source there is always a possibility that different funds could be acquiring an artists works at varying prices this could impact the state of different brands of funds there is also a possibility that a particular art fund could be purchasing works from preferred sources which again may see deviations creeping into the prices of artworks acquired for the fund thus it is necessary that the functioning of the funds are regulated in some way making them more transparent the source saidin a growing economy art prices are normally on the rise and funds can pay the investors but problems may arise when the economy becomes sluggish or slips into a recession in such cases redemption pressures on the funds is difficult to envisage and a regulatory framework is expected to guard investors to some extent from dips in the art market since the art and equity markets are different their performance parameters will vary based on feedback the art funds which have hit the market till now are generally giving satisfactory results and providing healthy returns to investors but the authorities could be thinking of creating a system of protection for the investors so that their money is not exposed in an unregulated market the source saidanother aim could be to bring uniformity in the operations and working principles of the funds at the same time like in mutual funds in a regulated system art funds could also declare navs thus evolving a definite value for the funds which will again inject transparency in the funds publication of data by the funds will also create a knowledge base about the funds and in turn the market