Investing or Buying Art

According to Axa insurance, art is seen as second only to property as a sound investment. It is less likely to suffer the crashes of the stock markets, but still quite likely to manage to increase by a substantial amount.

Personally, as an Artist I have invested in quite a few paintings from other Artists. These are my pension, and I believe as safe and steady investment as any other. Like my own works, they may increase to a smaller or greater extent, but by carefully choosing a wide ranging and balanced collection I spread my risk and hopefully will hit one or two artists that become 'collectible' and fetch prices I could never afford if I had waited until this happened.

The other way to view art as an investment is as a fine piece of furniture. Look after it and you get many years of use and pleasure from it. Unlike a print, a fine painting will have resale value, as would hand-made quality furniture often being worth more second-hand if in good condition and well aged.

Even if you look on your painting purchase like furnishings, it will long outlast your curtains, sofas, carpets, rugs etc. and will be a sound investment, although usually much cheaper than many other furnishings.

Art is a sound investment, and will pay for itself by it's giving of pleasure over many years. Add to that it will have a resale value, possibly of a much greater amount than you paid for it if you chose well and fortune favours both you and the artist. Why not start investing and collecting today, you don't need to invest a million dollars but you could be lucky and own the next Van Gogh........

Many would be purchasers of art as an investment are afraid to dip their toe in the water because they are not sure what good art is.
Art is subjective, but if you are investing there are a couple of points everyone would agree with.

1. Research your Artist, check their CV or biography. Things to look out for are:
(a)Have they any awards, have they been selected in juried shows?
(b)Do they sell, or have they sold through reputable Galleries?
(c)Are they in any major collections or museum/galleries?
(d)Do they have any one-person shows, art qualifications or recognition of any sort?
These are all helpful pointers to the quality of an artist's work.

2. Is the artists work of a consistent style and quality (without being almost identical), and has it developed over a period...assuming you have access to earlier images, but most artists will be able to show you some. Copied styles are rarely a good investment, a good artist will develope his own style and way of working.

3.When choosing a painting, choose a painting you like, there is no point investing in art you don't want to live with on your walls or shelves. You then have the added bonus of enjoying your investment.

4.Remember spread your investments, don't expect every artist to be a good investment, an artist's work can also go down in re-sale value, although it will usually hold it's value if not increasing. Sometimes you will be lucky and get a bonus boost if an artist becomes a 'fashion' or 'recognised' and the value of his/her work can increase enormously.

5. Finally, if in doubt ask an independant expert, don't rely on the salesman to tell you it's a good investment, they are usually profiting from the sale.

With the crash in the stock markets, now it is even better value investing in art. Art is not as volatile as stocks and shares and will be a sounder investment for the small investor. Quality art will hold a value, and the added advantage is you can enjoy it while you own it.