This supplement is an independent publication from Raconteur MediaDecember 16 2008
INVESTING IN ART
State of the arts
There’s the love of art and the love of money. The artmarket rewards them both, writes Godfrey Barker.Since 2005 art has entered on a 21st cen-tury boom. While the Dow Jones andthe S & P 500 have cautiously advanced,fallen back, advanced again and nowslumped to the levels of 2003, art hasclimbed steadily for four years and insome sectors – Impressionist and Mod-ern Pictures, Contemporary Art, Russ-ian Painting – it has risen absurdly. It ishard to avoid this conclusion: art maydeal in supreme treasures from Leonar-do da Vinci to Andy Warhol but it is alsoa 21st century financial instrumentwhich has piled up more profits forinvestors in London, New York, Paris,Geneva and Hong Kong than 99 percent of stocks and bonds.Is that all over? By no means. Yes,Impressionist and Modern Pictures andContemporary Art famously bombed inNew York’s November sales, shedding 20per cent on prices in a week and sincethen American, Russian and Chinesemodern painting have turned in seri-ously lacklustre performances. But theother two-thirds of the art market hasheld firm and in some areas inchedupwards. When Christie’s stared hard atthree days of sales in Hong Kong in earlyDecember, it found to its amazementthat 44 per cent of all lots had sold overhigh estimate. In London, Old Masters –a dust-covered, unglamorous area of themarket which rarely receives press cov-erage – performed the astonishing featin a weak sale at Sotheby’s on 4 Decem-ber of selling a majority of lots beyondexpectation. And an astonishing newrecord for a diamond was set at £16.4mat Christie’s last week.For those approaching the art marketfor profit first, the news is this. Everyonehas lost 20 per cent this autumn. Thishas put the highest-priced areas of themarket onto Himalayan summits inac-cessible to climbers – Impressionist andModern Pictures, Contemporary Art,20th century Latin American, Russian,Chinese and US Paintings. On thesepeaks it takes serious sums of money,often over $20 million, to buy a first rankpicture. Jewellery, also, after January toMay’s one third climb in diamondprices, has never been so expensive. The rest of the art market is not sopricey. Money goes far further in manyother sectors and first rank paintings,artworks and objects are much morecheaply obtained – Chinese Ceramics,English and American Furniture andSilver, Wine, Photography, Old Masters,Natural History, Tribal Art, Islamic Art,Art Nouveau, Art Deco and 20th centu-ry Design, Victorian Painting, Faberge,20th century Italian Art, Watches. In all these areas just listed Novemberheld auction sales which were as success-ful as the more mountainous areas of themarket were weak. Why? It is simply that speculatorsand investors are alive and busy at lowerlevels on the mountain, where sumsbetween £2 million and £4 million willbuy art of the very first rank, while athigher and riskier levels they havepaused to see what happens next. “Con-fidence plays a big role on the art mar-ket,” says Annabel Fell-Clark of theContinued on page 3The Modern CollectorArt critic Edward Lucie-Smith examines theportrait of the collector of contemporaryworks of art.Old Masters on the rise. Frans Hals rediscovered St Mark on sale at Colnaghi for in excess of £5 millionpage 4A Corporate CollectionClaire Adler discovers a corporate collectionwith a twist at Mont Blanc and ponders whycompanies buy so much art.page 7Art on a Global scalePernilla Holmes talks to Frank Cohen abouthis extraordinary collection and the interna-tional art market.page 13INVEST AND ENJOY!Please call for a full colour brochure01743 343452www.callaghan-finepaintings.com email art@callaghan-finepaintings.com22 St Mary’s Street, Shrewsbury, SY1 1EDEugene Galien Laloue 1854-1941La Porte Saint DenisWatercolour, 19cm x 31cmMarcel Dyf 1899-1985Fin de Journee Oil on canvas, 18 ¼” x 21 ¾”Antoine Bouvard – Snr. 1870 – 1956Della Salute, The Grand CanalOil on canvas, 12 ½” x 18”