Friday 12th August 2016.jpg)
It wasn't so long ago that we here at Gallereo were completely caught up in the fervour surrounding the latest and greatest auction price records. It seemed like every week there was an incredible new sales figure attached to a piece by a world famous artist, and they were some truly staggering numbers. But after a while, this seemed to grow less and less important, and we began to wonder about how the entire system worked.
We were left wondering who was buying these pieces for such incredible amounts, and whether or not it was really worth it. It seemed like most of the pieces were never being enjoyed, they were simply chips in a game, an object of value worth what was assigned to it, disconnected from any kind of literal or aesthetic value.
We began to wonder - has art speculation gone crazy?
Roman Kräussl, a professor of finance at University of Luxembourg's School of Finance, thinks so. A recent analysis performed by a team of researchers found that the perception of value for art speculation and the perception of value growth were being significantly exaggerated. This led the researchers to a simple conclusion: buy the art if you like it, but don't expect it to make money for you.
Some financial analysts have been placing the rate of return for art funds at over 10%, when in fact it's much lower at 6.3%, and that the risks associated with art as an investment were significantly under represented.
"If you own a painting, you bear the physical risks and costs, including insurance, damage, and theft or forgery, among others. In short, buy paintings if you like looking at them. You can hope that your children will sell one or more of them later for a gain -- but paintings are primarily aesthetic investments, not financial ones," Kräussl wrote in the press release accompanying the publication of the analysis.
Hopefully, this will signal a shift back to the valuation of art for arts sake, and no longer as tool for billionaires and computer-managed investment funds to move money around the world. Art is made to be appreciated, not to be locked up in a high-tech vault somewhere because it's too valuable to be seen by the public.
Posted on August 12th 2016 on 04:14pm
