18 Things You Absolutely Should Know About Investing in Art

Ah, Gabriela! My middle school crush. Her father, Eric Albreicht, an eminent art critic, had lined every wall of their home with beautiful paintings.

The walls of our house were lined with books. (Books were also piled high on every surface and held up one leg of the dining room table.) My mother, a close friend of Eric’s, was an art lover too. But she could afford only reproductions.

When, some 29 years later, I began to buy art, I bought it for the love of my mother’s intelligence and for the standard of beauty that Gabriela’s father had set for me.

Collecting for love and beauty is a perfectly defensible motive. But as my purchases ran into the hundreds, I began thinking of art as an investment.

I’ve been buying art for more than 40 years. I have owned and run five galleries and have a current collection of more than 1000 pieces. And though I still buy for love and beauty, I temper my enthusiasm by following a set of guidelines I’ve developed along the way. 

  1. Art has no intrinsic value. Its value is determined entirely by the market.
  1. The most important factor in the current value of a work of art is the reputation of the artist among market insiders.
  1. The most important factor in the future value of a work of art is the artist’s prominence in art history books. Next is the importance of the museums that display his/her work. Third is the number of corporations and wealthy individuals that own it.
  1. From a value perspective, when you are buying established dead artists you are buying historical artifacts.
  1. The fine art market has very little resemblance to the financial markets. It is smaller, more controlled, and less regulated. In terms of participants – brokers, buyers, and critics – it is very small. In terms of dollar values, it is quite large. (The most recent figure I found valued the global art market at almost $64 billion!)
  1. Contrary to other assets, diversifying does not increase safety with fine art. Specialization does. It’s better to collect 100 pieces by one artist you admire than one piece by each of 100 different artists.
  1. Evaluating individual pieces of art is easier now that auction records are available online.
  1. The factors that matter most in valuation are: artist, medium, size, rarity, and style/period.
  1. Like most tangible assets, rarity and “quality” affect price appreciation. The “better” pieces typically outpace ordinary pieces by a considerable degree.
  1. As a general rule, oils are more valuable than acrylics… acrylics are more valuable than gouaches… gouaches are more valuable than crayon and ink pieces… crayon and ink pieces are more valuable than ink pieces… and ink pieces are more valuable than pencil sketches.
  1. “Buy what you like” is bad advice for the new investor. That’s because what they like is not typically what they like after they have been in the game for a dozen years.
  1. The touted 10% historic return for fine art is contrived. The actual return for most investors and collectors is probably closer to the rate of inflation.
  1. That said, if you can afford to buy “museum quality” art, it’s quite possible to earn 10% overall. I’ve done as well or better in the last 30 years. (Not so well in the first 10.)
  1. To maximize profit and minimize risk, buy the most representative examples of the best-known artists you can afford.
  1. Start slowly, investing in just one to three artists. Stay with them forever if you want. If you wish to expand your collection horizontally, move slowly.
  1. Constantly upgrade your collection. When you have the chance, sell two or three lower-quality works to purchase a single higher-quality one.
  1. Art has three distinct financial and estate management advantages: It is portable. It is transportable. And for the most part it is non-reportable.
  1. If you don’t take daily aesthetic pleasure in your art, you are missing most of its value. In other words, if you aren’t in it for love and beauty in addition to asset growth, you are better off with stocks.
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Would You Like to Start a Serious Art Collection?

“What do you think of this painting?” he asked me. “They want $250,000 for it.”

SP is a former protégé and current partner. He’s had a very successful career. He’s got a beautiful house and lots of expensive toys, but he doesn’t spend money foolishly. So it didn’t surprise me that if he was going to venture into buying fine art, he’d ask one of the few people he knew that had some experience.

The image was well done but conventional. I was only vaguely familiar with the artist. But since I knew the broker, I was pretty sure the piece was being offered at an aggressive price. So I looked up the recent history of the artist’s pieces sold at auction and saw that the painting my colleague was interested in was, indeed, seriously overpriced. I told him so. He didn’t buy it.

He sent me a note, expressing consternation at the process of buying investment-grade art. “It’s not like stocks and bonds,” he observed. “There is no transparency.”

That is partly true. If you are buying art from a dealer, you may find yourself relying exclusively on the information he provides. This gives an unscrupulous dealer, knowing how little most buyers know about art, a big advantage. Art brokers, though, usually won’t lie. It could get them in trouble. But they can and will select the facts they want to convey and omit those they would rather not divulge.

When I first went into the art business in 1989, the retail buyer was greatly dependent on the honesty and integrity of his dealer. Although there were records of auction sales, they were published in large bound volumes months after the auctions took place. Hardly anyone but art dealers and auctioneers even knew they existed.

I used those books then and they taught me a lot. Among other things, they taught me that once you understood some basic facts about valuing art, researching past sales for a particular artist could give you a very good idea of what a piece from that artist was worth.

Today, you can find just about everything you need to know about prices online. Which means you can figure out whether a particular piece is worth the asking price by doing your own research.

If you have read any of my essays on art collecting, you know that my first rule is to start small. And by small, I mean two things:

Buy just one or two artists. If you are like most people, you’ll want to buy dozens of different paintings from different periods from different artists. This is not a good idea if your goal is to become a serious collector. Buying and selling art competently requires a fair (not crazy, but fair) amount of knowledge about that particular artist. You need to know what medium he is best known for, what period is considered his strongest, what images are favored. You also need to develop an eye for the details of his work so you can spot possible fakes. You can do this in a matter of months if you focus on a single artist. Maybe two. But if you begin with a collection of a dozen or so, it will take a long time to come up to speed. And during that time, you will likely be making many costly mistakes.

Spend small. Even if you have millions sitting around with nothing to do, don’t begin by spending six and seven figures. I often advise new collectors to spend a year or two building a “baby collection.” Buying a few dozen pieces of a few dozen artists but never spending too much money on any single piece. The less you spend, in fact, the better. Why? Because I can tell you with almost 100% certainty that several years after assembling your baby collection, you’ll grow tired of it and want to start over.

That’s all good. Because the idea of the baby collection is to teach you how to buy and sell art, not to actually begin your collection. The money you are spending on those initial purchases should be viewed as tuition. You’ll learn just as much spending $50 on each piece as you would $50,000 – so why not spend less?

After you have graduated from your baby collection, it’s time to start to think about building a serious collection that will appreciate in value over time.

Start, as I suggested, with one artist. Pick an artist whose work you like and can afford. Pick one that is established – i.e., his works are part of the permanent collections of several large museums.

Most artists work in two or three media – oil, watercolor, gouache, pen and ink, and pencil. Typically, oils are more expensive than watercolors and gouaches are more expensive than pen and ink and pencil sketches tend to be the least expensive. Also, larger pieces usually cost more than smaller one.

But those are general rules. Superseding them is the quality of the image (how well rendered it is) and the type of image or period it represents. (If the artist is best known for his abstract paintings, a realistic piece will be worthless.)

For variety and to improve your knowledge you might buy one or two oil paintings, a gouache, and a pencil sketch from one artist before you move to the next.

And when you do move to the next, it’s preferable to stay close to the first artist – that is, to buy another artist from the same period or the same school. This is not a hard and fast rule, but it will reduce your learning time and possible mistakes because the guidelines that apply to one artist of a school usually apply to another.

Good art comes in all price ranges. Buying expensive, museum-quality pieces does not make you cultivated. Having a sophisticated appetite for art does. It is much more impressive to see a roomful of beautiful and unusual works by unknown artists that someone has collected over the years for pennies than it is to walk into a million-dollar living room filled with very expensive junk that has been sold and bought for prestige.

Another important point: Buy unique pieces instead of prints. Prints are like condos – they do well in good markets but tend to collapse in weak ones. It’s always better, both from a personal standpoint and from an investment point of view, to have unique, original pieces that no one else has.

The most important thing is to buy pieces you like, keeping in mind that your taste will change – and improve – as you gain experience.

As time passes, you will become an expert on the artist(s) or genre you have chosen to specialize in. You will know as much about the value of individual pieces as anyone else in the world.

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A Fun and Clever Way to Build an Art Collection

Thursday, October 25, 2018

Delray Beach, FL– If you ever want to develop a really great art collection – on the cheap – here’s a clever strategy you can use. I picked it up from an elder statesman in our industry that lived for years in Mexico and then in Paris. As far as I know, he never spent more than a few thousand dollars on any individual work. He enjoyed his collection during his life, and when he died it was worth millions.

The strategy is this: Find a location where young artists abound. It could be somewhere in the States. Or it could be overseas. Sponsor an exhibition/contest for up-and-comers, not amateurs but artists whose work has gained some recognition among gallery owners and local critics. Award three cash prizes. (Just big enough to attract a good number of entries.) It’s a juried show, and you are the judge. The rules require a contract, and the contract gives you the right to buy any of the entries at a predetermined price – a price you are happy to pay.

If it works the first time, make it an annual show. Rinse and repeat for 20 years. It will provide you with a large and worthy collection. If you have an instinct for judging, it may be a valuable collection, too.

I’m doing this in Central America. The idea is to bolster my current collection of modern masters with “emerging” talent. Suzanne Snider, my partner in Ford Fine Art, has been leading the charge. We began by sponsoring art events in the capitals of each country and got to know the players. Now we are commencing with the contests.

She recently wrote to me from Managua, Nicaragua, where Johann, our local partner, had just put on our first show:

Mark – The exhibition at the Cultural Center looks fantastic. Johann did an exceptional job… The works are significant and arranged perfectly. 

Tonight we met the new Ambassador of Spain. It was packed. At least 150 people. All the artists were there except one who is considered an activist and had to leave the country. Lots of press and lots of compliments and good feedback.

I am cutting the budget by staying in Johann’s family home… I have the upstairs master suite, the roosters crowing and the birds singing this morning. Thinking about a nice bath in the jacuzzi.  

This is fun stuff. I’m jealous of my partner. But I’ll attend our next show. If you fancy yourself a speculator and you are interested in collecting art, this strategy could put the odds in your favor.

Here are some images from the show:

 

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Art Notes

Ernesto “San” Avilés

Van der Weyden + Des San Juanes, 1969

I have more than a thousand works of art in my collection. This little painting by Salvadoran artist San Avilés is one of my favorites.

As you can see, San Avilés can display the technical skill of a classically trained master, but there are always elements in his compositions that veer from the expected. In the case of this painting (which was painted in Paris in 1969), you have a very common subject: Christ being lowered from the cross. However San Avilés’version – sensual and rich in religious symbolism but without any apparent dogmatic intent – is far from traditional.

It sits on an étagère in the billiard room outside my gallery office. It is surrounded by many larger and more imposing pieces, but it seldom fails to catch my attention when I step into that room. And when I see it, it pleases me.

Browsing visitors notice it too. I like to watch how their expressions change as they take it in. The technical mastery of the composition itself draws them to it, and the subject matter makes them think for a moment that they are looking at a Renaissance painting. But then the bits that are missing – figures to support Christ’s body and the face of his mother – tell them they are looking at a post-modern painting. One unlike anything they’ve seen before.

Or such is my interpretation of their expressions.

San Avilés is one of more than 30 modern masters featured in Central American Modernism / Modernismo en Centroamérica, a book I have been working on for nearly 10 years.

For more information on the book, contact Suzanne Brooks Snider: suzanne@rojasford.com; (561) 512-2467

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This Is Not a Pipe

What I like about Magritte is that he never claimed he was creating another language. When asked what his paintings meant he always said they mean nothing. He even painted pipes with the tag, “This is not a pipe” to make it clear that the painted image is its own thing and sufficient in itself.

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