Is Art A Wise Investment? A New Platform Lets You Buy Shares Of Blue-Chip Paintings
Kathryn Graddy, Brandeis University
In the fall of 2018, a Banksy work, “Love is in the Bin,” sold for US$1.4 million.
Now the original buyer has put the work up for sale, and it’s expected to fetch over $5 million – that would amount to a return of more than 250% on the original investment.
What if, instead of the art market’s being the sole purview of the deep-pocketed, everyday people could buy shares of a pricy piece of art and sell the shares as they please?
That’s exactly what a new platform, Masterworks, seeks to do.
Art investment funds have existed for over a century. Masterworks, however, has put a new twist on an old practice, in that the platform allows individuals to buy shares of specific artworks in $20 increments. Investors can then sell these shares in an easy-to-use ...