Inside the palatial New Delhi home of artist and collector Shalini Passi

There are paintings, video art, sculptures, installations, Fornasetti bureaus, Gio Ponti tchotchkes, gilt wood mirrors, étagère bookshelves, and so much more. It’s an extraordinary collection by any standards—and a testimony to the near-magpie-like instinct of this very curious, voracious collector.

A GOOD EYE

“I’m an artist and always had an eye for art, for meaningful objects,” says Shalini. She’s sitting in the dining room of her home, simple, in a blue cotton dress. The table is groaning under teatime snacks, with tea served in vintage Meissen porcelain (there’s no hostess quite like a Delhi hostess). “I was,” she says, “and always will be obsessive; if I see something beautiful or interesting, I make a note of it, I research it endlessly. I go to museums, scour antique shops, look at fabric, feel the textures of stone, and seek the provenance, and the beauty of an object. One should have an eye for refinement,” she says.

In the passage, an exit leads to liquid-metal wall panelling by Based Upon. At the entrance is a 1989 oil-on-canvas by Manjit Bawa. To the right of it are two 2012 sculptures titled Victory Pillar in coin, cement, kumkum, and bronze by LN Tallur

On the curved wall of the corridor is Riyas Komu’s 2010 Lost Resonance II, in recycled wood, automotive paint, and iron. A 2006 Ravinder Reddy head is placed right in the middle of the corridor. Mounted on the wall in the distance is a mixed-media work from Anita Dube’s 1999 series titled The Theatre of Sade