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Art Investment Opportunities Investing in antiques is a straightforward business. Trust in your own good taste, decide what you are willing to pay and make your bid. John Shaw explains It was sold within minutes. The glossy portrait of a man sitting sideways in a chair, bought for £1.76 million in 1987, was knocked down for £7.7 million,
setting a new world auction record for the work of Egon Schiele (1890-1918), the Austrian expressionist. In the discrete way of the auction world at this rarefied level, bidding at Sotheby’s moved swiftly on and the identity of both vendor and new owner remained anonymous. The episode was an example of how profitable art investment can be when quality and skilled marketing come together. Art Investment Opportunities & Return Approaching A return approaching £6 million over 13 years is good going by any standard. A long period of ownership will have conferred all kinds of intangible associations on the vendor, like good taste, sophistication and artistic acumen. After all, Schiele was only 28 when he died and so such decorative portraits are rare. On top of that comes a big cheque when it’s time to sell on a rising market. But art investment is not simply a case of buying low and selling high. The international auction world is really a score of quite different markets, such as furniture, silver, porcelain and glass moving at different levels all the time, not to mention the huge growth in collectibles, which range from film posters to football programmes. Nevertheless, the impressionist and modern sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s are one of the high points of the auction year and a key pointer to its overall health, which, thanks to buoyant economies, is good. Art Investment Opportunities Regarding Buying At Auctions “Investment plays a role in buying at auction because nobody’s going to part with big sums of money without having some eye on the future,” says Philip Hook, Sotheby’s senior specialist on impressionist art.
“But the strange thing is that people who buy with knowledge and discernment and who love the paintings are generally the people who end up with the best investment in the end. Those who buy simply for investment without that love of the pictures end up not getting what they hoped for.” He was underlining an old truth; go for what you are interested in. A lot of wealthy people who bought purely for investment purposes in the 1980s saw millions wiped off their assets when the market crashed in 1989-1990. Art Investment Opportunities & Buying The lesson: knowledge, as they say, is power. If you are interested in something already, then that involvement can lead to wise buying in whatever segment of the market you enter. Mistakes can be costly. If you are about to enter the market, remember to take the long view. The owner of the Schiele bought on a rising market in the 1980s, but had to grit his teeth and weather the recession before the market rose again.
The work of Austrian and German artists is now in great demand and both salerooms think this section of the market still has a lot of growth in it. But the thing here, as with all other aspects of the art market, is quality. Premium goods, fresh to the market, will always bring high prices. Art Investment Opportunities And The Chase When buying, fix an upper limit and stick to it. It is easy to let the moment go to your head and continue the chase, because when the hammer falls that is by no means the end of the matter if you have been successful. You will have to pay the buyer’s premium, something charged by all the main auction houses. With the exception of wine, coins and books, the charge at Sotheby’s, for instance, is 20 per cent on the first £10,000 of the hammer price, 15 per cent on the next £50,000 and 10 per cent over £60,000. When selling, fix a reasonable pre-sale estimate - these are a guide for prospective buyers, nothing more. The high and low figures are usually fixed in consultation with the saleroom staff, who know the price similar properties have made in the past. The lesson here is - don’t be greedy. You want to get the goods away and any bid between the high and low offers buys a chance of success. The saleroom is littered with stories of people who have insisted on unrealistic estimates and been left with their goods. They can then be very hard to sell. Art Investment Opportunities & Working Abroad People entering the market for the first time, often expatriates working abroad, should always seek expert advice from a specialist dealer or reputable art agent like Robert Holden in London. The firm can offer a wide range of advice tailored to individual circumstances that can make art investment, if not quite a £6 million surprise, then at least a much less bumpy ride than it could be. 
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