All of us would have at some point or the other experienced some spare cash, or an investment just having paid dividends, or received an inheritance or paid off the mortgage. What do we do with the money? We either use it for consumption or invest it. If we do not need to consume it, where do we invest it? Investment has many avenues; the traditional ones range from fixed deposits in banks to gold and shares. Art too, is one of them. Till date, only a part of the elite had taken investment in art seriously. Times have changed. Art as an investment has grown immensely in value terms. Today, a Van Gogh has been sold for £20 million which couldn t be sold in the artist s lifetime (for love or money)! One can then, estimate the strides that art has taken as investment. Turnover in fine art auctions has jumped at the rate of approx 30 percent p.a. between 2003 and 2006. Much of this growth has been due to high-profile auctions hosted by Sotheby s and to an incredible increase in prices. If prices continue to advance at the same pace, they could well surpass November 1990 highs by the time the curtains are drawn on 2006, thus taking art market prices to unprecedented levels. Collectors and investors seeking to make substantial gains might consider it the right time to sell off some of their art assets they acquired in the 1980s. Despite art being so lucrative, the middle class investor has stayed away from investment in art. Why has he been cynical? Is art really a good enough long-term investment? For a new investor to know about art as an investment, he has to know the art market as much as possible like, how prices are set for art, what determines guaranteed resale value, how the art market is doing now, what are the best bets etc. This book is an attempt to introduce art investment to a first time investor.
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