While much of the Armory Show — the international art fair on Pier 94 that kicks off this Friday — is open to the public, the special events are for VIPs only. Among those special events are visits to the homes of 20 prominent New York art collectors, including Rajiv and Payal Chaudhri. Their private collection of Indian antiquities and contemporary and modern paintings will be open to guests for exclusive viewings.

Their Riverside Drive apartment — which was once Mr. Chaudhri’s spacious bachelor pad — is now a mini-museum of sorts. Their collection features modern art from mid-career and established Indian artists, as well as bronze and sandstone antique sculptures, many of which date back more than two millennia.

“It’s a fun, passionate hobby that we share,” Mrs. Chaudhri said of the pair’s art collecting.

Then again, she added: “It’s an obsession.”

Some of the art predates Mrs. Chaudhri, purchased by her husband in the years before they met — the couple was married in June 2004 — but the majority are pieces they decided on together.

As Mr. Chaudhri is often busy with running Digital Century Capital, his nine-year-old hedge fund, Mrs. Chaudhri has taken on the unofficial role of curator — keeping in mind a simple declaration by Mr. Chaudhri. “I want every one of my works to be ‘iconic’ museum quality pieces,” he said.

To that end, Mrs. Chaudhri travels every few weeks to scout Indian art at auctions, art fairs, and galleries throughout Europe, Asia, and North America.

“We are very strategic about the art we purchase,” the Chicago-born Mrs. Chaudhri said. “We focus on Indian art because I think it’s really important to support your heritage.”

The couple’s growing collection of more than 400 paintings, sculptures, and antiquities has now spilled into rented storage spaces, the Midtown office of Digital Century Capital, and a second home the couple shares in Mr. Chaudhri’s native New Delhi. “We rotate the collection once every six months,” Mrs. Chaudhri said. And on occasion, the Chaudhris have loaned pieces to domestic and international museums.

Among the more provocative paintings on display in the Chaudhri’s apartment is a work by the Goan artist Francis Newton Souza. Souza’s “Naked Nude” (1962), a 6-foot-by-3-foot oil on canvas, depicts a woman with an angry countenance rendered in severe black and beige brushstrokes. Set against a vibrant redorange background, she is shown disrobing.

“It’s just a powerful work,” Mrs. Chaudhri said of the work, which is the first piece guests encounter upon entering the home. “When you walk in, it makes a statement.”

The couple has collected many works by Souza, who died in 2002. “The most striking thing about the large souza is when you consider that he had a tempestuous relationship with women — many women — all his life,” Mr. Chaudhri remarked.

The couple also shows their support for their Hindu heritage in the foyer, where they’ve placed an 11th-century bronze, a relic of the Chola dynasty that depicts the male and female Hindu deities Shiv and Parvathi. “The sculpture is both serene and majestic; it is an unusually large size,” Mr. Chaudhri said.

According to Hindu tradition, the deities represent the familial bond and are typically, although not in this sculpture, depicted with a child. Both are swathed in elaborate headdresses and ornamental jewelry, but it is the fourarmed Shiv — wielding a weapon in one hand and an animal in another — who is meant to symbolize the protector in the family.

The couple purchased the antique by phone at an auction of Indian and Southeast Asian art at Christie’s in 2000. “It’s a very important piece, and it’s in great condition,” Mrs. Chaudhri said. The piece also served as the cover art for that auction’s catalog.

The Chaudhris have already accumulated an impressive collection both individually and together in the last 15 years, and have no plans to slow down. “This is such a driving passion in our lives that I do not expect to ever stop,” Mr. Chaudhri said.

kherrup@nysun.com