

Protip: Buy Art - petercooper
http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2010/09/protip-buy-art.html

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I would never suggest buying art as an investment. No one should buy something
as an investment unless they understand what drives its price, and very few of
the people who buy contemporary art understand what drives prices.

Years ago I knew someone who made a living as an art advisor, telling rich
people what contemporary art to buy. She was one of the top handful of people
in this business. I once asked her why she didn't just use her knowledge to
invest in art on her own account. She said it was way too risky. If she
wouldn't do it, no layperson should.

It's better just to buy stuff you like, without thinking about whether it will
get more valuable. It will make your choices more honest too.

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bockris
Actually if she was an advisor, she could easily buy the stuff she was pushing
before she pushed it.

Are there rules (besides the ethical ones) against that?

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_delirium
> art almost always goes up. It is the best small-scale, short-term
> investment.

I'm not really sure about this. Sure, I can think of lots of examples of art
I've bought that's gone up, and stuff I haven't bought that in retrospect I
should've. Even small-scale art like limited-edition CDs. But I've also run
across a whole lot that's gone down. Just scan ebay and you'll get a ton of
art being unloaded for $0.99 that someone once paid money for. I own some
stuff that I probably couldn't sell for $1 that I paid a lot more than that
for. You can even get 19th-century paintings from artists who turned out to be
duds for barely more than the canvas is worth.

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wwortiz
Art may go up in price for a large portion of pieces the problem however is
art pieces require a substantial investment for minimal interest, you would
make more money quicker by buying 10 year bonds or through more risky,
compared to bonds, investments.

Not to mention the market for art isn't big.

