An art collector who prefers to rely on her own instincts rather than those of a personal curator, Francesca von Habsburg, made news at Basel a couple of years ago when she paid 35,000 Euros for a 'sound installation' by a relatively unknown Icelandic artist called Finnbogi Petursson. The room-sized work was earmarked for her five-year-old Vienna-based art foundation dedicated to showing experimental 21st century art from across the world - T-B A21 (Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary). A fixture at all the major biennales, she is a force to reckon with in the international art firmament. Recently, she was in the news again when she launched Kuba, her ambitious art project wherein a barge containing an installation by Turkish artist, Kutlug Ataman, is travelling up the Danube from the Black Sea to Vienna, stopping at six cities along the way.

Yet art is not the only reason why she is a newsmaker. As the only daughter of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, an Eastern European industrialist-billionaire known as the greatest art collector of his age and his second wife, Fiona Campbell Walter, a leading British fashion model of the '50s and '60s, she is a celebrity in her own right. Once the 'It' girl of '80s London, where she studied for two years at the St Martin's College of Art, she has tried her hand at modelling, acting, singing...and dating pop stars. Then, on January 31, 1993, Francesca married the Archduke Karl of Austria. As wife of the heir to the non-existent thrones of Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Croatia, Slovenia, Dalmatia, Transylvania, Galicia and Illyria, she would be the empress-in-waiting of most of Eastern Europe, were the Austro-Hungarian Empire ever to be restored.

Last month, she made a lightning visit to familiarise herself with contemporary Indian art - an event that would have gone unrecorded in the media, were it not for the fact that Verve constantly has a finger on the pulse of the art world. Besides back-to-back encounters in Delhi with avant-garde artists working in new and exciting media, her 10-day itinerary included a visit to Benares ("that was an incredible experience and even a slight privilege") and an audience with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala ("I have met him earlier, so he greeted me as an old friend"). Hats off to her, for though she was "down with the flu" and utterly exhausted by the time she made a one-day stopover in Mumbai, she kept her commitment to the string of meetings set up with the city's artists.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Francesca von Habsburg is not the solemn personality you would expect an imperial Arch Duchess to be, neither were her calls screened. Despite an obvious lack of time, the unexpectedly informal and refreshingly unguarded royal patroness of the arts displayed an inclination to share her thoughts, in an hour-long conversation held around midnight while she was on her way to take her flight back to Austria. In between sniffles punctuated by coughing bouts, I learnt that she was here to explore possible avenues for collaboration.

Among the organisations and institutions who share her vision, Francesca cited Khoj, an artist-led alternative forum for experimentation and international exchange in the field of visual arts in India. "In Delhi, I met Pooja Sood from Khoj Studios and was impressed by the fantastic, dynamic work she is doing," she divulged. "We are very attracted to the collaborations she is initiating. Khoj is working on a level that we would like to... internationally. Their work is community-based and their consciousness of humanity is very strong. They have a refreshing approach and we would love to partner with them in some way." She was all praise for Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta of the RAQS Collective, a Delhi-based organisation engaged in examining the changing relations between the old and new media and tactical media practices. "They have an incredible visibility in Europe among the most respected international curators," she observed, adding that she would like to work with them too.

Through a curator from Germany, Francesca also met some Indian film-makers. Like Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, co-directors of Dreaming Lhasa, a film about the young generation of Tibetans born in exile. "We have commissioned a new art project about the contemporary Tibetan tradition of reincarnation. I think it's important for Tibetan culture to be integrated into the contemporary, rather than remain a trip down nostalgia lane that it is for international tourists." Another art project she is looking forward to is with Amar Kanwar, a documentary film-maker turned artist. "He works on film-based art projects... and is doing one on Violence against Women, which we are co-producing. It deals with rape victims from Nagaland to Rajasthan - not just a docu-style project, but an art venture that uses images and not interviews that would further humiliate the victims," she explained, describing it as a film about the "memory of places where horrors happened".

In Mumbai, she was introduced to artists like Subodh Gupta and Bose Krishnamachari. "He is also a curator," she pointed out about Bose, "something I find lacking in India. There are very few people with an art historical understanding, but Amrita Jhaveri and Sangita Kathiwada (of Melange) were kind enough to guide me." Francesca also exchanged ideas with artists from the Open Circle, an initiative that aims to create a platform for a meaningful artistic dialogue on an intercultural level, on issues pertinent to the present-day cultural and political environment.

The foundation chaired by Francesca ran an exhibition Not for You on their website www.tba21.org this summer... and while China figured prominently, India was nowhere in the picture. But the Tibetan project and Kanwar's film will be shown in Vienna next year, during their planned series on the traditional and folklore expression in contemporary art. "I will visit India again, to follow up on these ideas," she promised, before stepping out of her car at Mumbai's international airport. We look forward to that!