Nisha, 22, has been living off her pocket money and saving all that she earns from her part-time job to give herself a chance to buy her kind of art. Not because she knows it’s intelligent investment, but because her bedroom walls were crying out for them.

This weekend, she went on a buy-buy spree at Art Mela, picking up a Paresh Maity, a Sumitro Basak, some Kalighat pata and some sketches — all for Rs 25,000.

Young Calcutta is browsing and buying (when and if it suits its budget) art for the sake of love, not money.

Money is, in fact, the barrier between the young buyer and his pursuit of art. The three-day art fair at CIMA Gallery lowered the price barrier and with it the age barrier.

Students, young professionals, homemakers and entrepreneurs flocked to the fair to pick up works ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 25,000, all in a festive atmosphere marked by phuchka, adda and caricature.

“Being a jaded galleryist, I am very happy to notice the expressions on the faces of young working women when they are buying the art on offer. They seem to be handling it like a gift, unlike most of our interactions with serious buyers, who treat the art on sale as a strictly business subject,” smiled Pratiti Sarkar of CIMA.

There was no missing that “expression” on the faces of Shantanu and Anindita Das, along with their little girl, as they toured the Sunny Park gallery on Saturday evening. Shantanu, a software professional, has “a background in art”, while homemaker Anindita has an eye for aesthetics.

“Buying art is to make our house look better, we don’t look at the works as investment,” said Shantanu.

“Calcuttans really value a piece of art, and that’s not in economic terms at all,” stressed Sarkar.

That’s unlike a Delhi or a Mumbai where a canvas is seen more as a cash cow.

The city’s sensitivity to art and artists was mirrored by Madhuja Mukherjee, a lecturer of film studies at Jadavpur University, who browses but never buys art. She made an exception at the Art Mela, picking up works by the 16-year-old Raja Mohan Das, a Howrah boy with a disability.

“The whole ambience of this reminds me of the Nandan Mela at Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan. I think a lot of people like me, who generally cannot be called art buyers, would love to own works if they were this affordable,” said Madhuja.

Affordable it sure was with the Rs 25,000 Masters section — Ganesh Pyne, Jogen Chowdhury, Ramananda Bandyopadhyay, Rabin Mondal, Suhas Roy, Ganesh Haloi… — all sold within minutes of the doors opening on Day One.

On Saturday, young artists like Sumitro Basak and Kingshuk Sarkar had to create works on the spot to be instantly put on display and sold. By Sunday evening, the exhibits were sold out.

Danseuse Ashavari and her film-maker husband Abhyudyay, in their 30s, left with works of Kingshuk Sarkar and Gautam Khamaru, and a broad smile. “It’s a joy buying a piece by a new artist that has caught my eye. This fair gave me the perfect chance to buy. If we only had more of these fairs, a lot more people would end up buying good art,” said Ashavari. For Abhyudyay, the art at home serves the twin purposes of “aesthetics and display”.

Young businessman Rahul Baid was an exception to the Calcutta rule of art for art’s sake. “A fair like this allows me to look at works by younger contemporary artists along with the masters. I try and keep up,” he smiled, economics more than aesthetics on his mind.