Equity Mag Sep_17 Book Folder

FINANCE
Above: Salma Shaheem
from The Fine Art Group.
Right: The "Untitled"
Basquiat painting that
sold for $110.5 million
You either love a Basquiat or you don’t. It isn’t
everyone’s cup of tea. But there are some who
understand the value of art as an investment, and
adding a contemporary piece from the late Jean-
Michel Basquiat to your collection, makes for a great longterm
investment. However, investing in art doesn’t mean you
pass up on pieces of interest. In fact, it’s vital to buy a piece
you love, one with a great history, that you connect with and
speaks volume. After all, it will most likely be hung in your
home or office. Take for instance the Japanese billionaire
Yusaku Maezawa, who purchased the Basquiat ‘Untitled’
impressionist, contemporary piece for $110.5 million at a
Sotheby’s auction in New York earlier this year. Maezawa’s
affection for the artist’s collection resulted in a recordbreaking
sale, the most expensive piece ever bought, that was
previously purchased by a couple (who left it to their two
daughters) for a mere $19,000 in the Eighties. The piece
appreciated by $109,981,000 in just 33 years, yielding a high
return that could never be anticipated. This isn’t the only
piece in Maezawa’s collection however, he previously bought
another painting by Basquiat for $57.3 million. Other works
in his collection include the likes of Jeff Koons, Christopher
Wool and Richard Prince.
Evidently, Maezawa has a penchant for contemporary art,
but if we had to follow in his footsteps, where would we
begin and how does one go about securing, or investing in, a
piece that appreciates overtime? That’s where art advisors
are brought into the equation. “There’s been a huge shift in
appetite for art. We’re seeing great, exponential growth in
the post warrant contemporary art genre in particular,” says
Salma Shaheem, head of Middle Eastern Markets of The
Fine Art Group (an art investment advisory house). “Over
the last 10-15 years or so, art has been made accessible to
everyone. Ten years ago, it probably wouldn’t make the
headlines of the New York Times and no one would talk
about it. Now, every time there’s a record-breaking auction,
all the media outlets talk about it. So, people are constantly
bombarded by this art news which I think is great,” says
Sylvain Gaillard, who transitioned from private banker to
an art advisor and Director of the Opera Gallery, to immerse
himself and grow his adoration for art and curation.
The sudden inflation can be attributed to the increase in
wealth, people looking to build a collection for investment
purposes and the fundamental law kind of mix, of supply and
demand. “You have a lot more people who want to buy art.
And the good pieces are either taken care of, spoken for, or in a
private collection or museums. So, when a good piece comes
out on the market, you have many who want to acquire it and
that drives the price and demand up,” he goes on to say.
The UAE, as Shaheem states, is an emerging market with a
strong foundation for the future of arts. As an advisor, her
job entails visiting museums, galleries, keeping an eye out for
art that has just come up on the market, and helping clients
pick the right piece for their specifically curated collection.
There are several ways in which art advisory works. “I meet a
client that knows they want to start collecting art and might
have an affinity towards it but they don’t know where to
begin. That's one scenario, the other is a person who began
collecting a few years ago, or inherited art, and now has over
40 pieces and doesn’t know what to do with it. We come in
and help with disposing of that and reinvesting whatever
money we can gain into better pieces,” she tells us.
But with art comes a price tag that can be considered quite
a risky investment. That’s where Shaheem stresses on the
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EQUITY