
Investing in Art - magda_wang
http://the-easel.com/essays/for-love-or-money-the-merits-of-investing-in-art/
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lucas_membrane
Insider trading and conflicts of interest are uncontrolled in this market. The
major shows of works of an artist are scheduled long before they are publicly
announced. These shows usually increase the value of works by the artists
selected. The big donors to the museums that hold the shows are the kind of
people who enjoy and buy art and wind up sitting on their boards. It would be
bad enough if they steered the museums to schedule shows of the artists whose
works they hold, but even if they do not hold any, they may have months of
insider knowledge of future shows during which they can acquire some such
works before the show is publicly announced and the market prices of the works
rise.

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badpun
Tangentally, I don't think "investing" is the right term here. When you invest
in something, you buy/create an asset (like a machine, or stocks in company)
that is creating returns. Meanwhile, buying assets that don't create returns,
with the hope of selling them for more later, is just speculation, not
investing.

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pradn
There are now companies like Masterworks that let you crowd-fund the purchase
of million-dollar artworks. Problem is that the fees are 1.5% a year and 20%
of profits and your gain will be realized when they decide to sell at some
point in the future.

It would be good to a Vanguard-like trust owned by investors where the trust
invests in well-known types of art - a trust for Impressionists, and a trust
for Baroque, for example. I'd perhaps invest in an art ETF that's traded on
the public market and owned hundreds of works. It's just not clear what should
be bought and when they should be sold.

[https://www.masterworks.io](https://www.masterworks.io)

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otoburb
>> _It 's just not clear what should be bought and when they should be sold._

Maybe this will be an incentive for shareholder voting to come back into
vogue.

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RickJWagner
I'd love to make moderate investments in art. The problem is I'm a prime
candidate for over-pricing, forgery, etc. Basically I have no idea how to
validate or value a piece of work.

So I guess I'll stick to the safe cheap stuff.

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yitchelle
Not to sound too cynical, but I am wondering how over-pricing can be a problem
when the price for a piece of art is however much someone is willing to pay
for it?

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tempguy9999
Further, if there is any _measurable_ value to much art other than how much
someone pays for it? Which is seemingly driven by hype, not any intrinsic
worth such as beauty/utility.

For example, anyone going through Gloucester Road tube station in London might
wonder if the platform 'art' there does anything noteworthy but hide the
brickwork behind.

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yitchelle
>> the platform 'art' there does anything noteworthy but hide the brickwork
behind.

Too true. I guess the value of the platform "art" might be equivalent to the
financial cost of actually fixing the hole, which in this case, could be
millions if you factor hiring the hole fixers and the lost of revenue due to
closing of the tube station.

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Cheyana
So the value of art by Jeffrey Koons could be the gainful employment of the
people that physically produce it, though their number appears to be
dwindling.

[https://news.artnet.com/art-world/jeff-koons-
downsizing-1442...](https://news.artnet.com/art-world/jeff-koons-
downsizing-1442788)

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envoked
Shameless plug:

If you're interested in the art market and factors which affect price/value, I
work for Arthena (YC W17) and we're hiring for a variety of roles. If you're
interested check out [https://angel.co/arthena](https://angel.co/arthena) or
reach out to me directly: adrian@arthena.com

~~~
ccffph
Hey Adrian, I've recently been looking into this area and stumbled upon your
site only several weeks ago. I was wondering if musical instruments would fit
into the "art" investment category as well, or is it a separate asset class?
Stradivarius/Cremona violins, Steinway pianos, etc. Would rare musical
instruments yield similar returns on average?

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RandomBacon
I'm curious, does anyone here invest in books (or trade in rare books in order
to get the books they want)?

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OisinMoran
Perhaps not exactly what you are asking, but my grandfather collected
antiquarian books. It was quite the collection and even had a first edition of
Alice in Wonderland with beautiful colour plate illustrations and one book
that looked like it had been signed by Queen Victoria. My mother had
previously sold a miniscule little book of (I think) Patrick Kavanagh's poems
for around £1000 or £2000, but had opted not to sell the Lewis Carroll because
it was so beautiful.

So one summer, many years ago, she tasked me with valuing and selling off some
of the rest of these books that had just been collecting dust under their bed
and I hopped online to sites like Abe Books, made a little spreadsheet, then
set off with a rucksack of what I thought was around €1000 worth of books.
Now, as I was quite young and unemployed this seemed like a lot of money.

Alas, my first few trips to various bookshops specialising in this very thing
were all futile. I eventually managed to sell a few but for much less than I
thought, and to get anything reasonable I ended up having to part with the
Alice in Wonderland. Thankfully I read it before.

This is all to say I would not recommend investing in books. They take up a
lot of space, gather dust, are not particularly liquid, and most won't even
appreciate and you've got to be careful not to damage the ones that will.
Anything less interesting than a signed first edition by a renowned author
will barely even get a second glance.

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RandomBacon
Thank you for sharing your experience. Your last paragraph does make sense.

