I became an art investor today.
I invested using a new platform called Masterworks.
I stumbled into it randomly while scrolling through Twitter. (Thank you, Twitter!)
The onboarding process was smooth.
It’s by appointment and it’s over the phone. They give you more info about the platform and the benefits of art investing. Then the person walks you through your first investment.
Art pieces are broken down to $20/share. A first investment size of $1,000 is recommended (to help you get a healthy return).
The most recent art piece they sold was a Banksy piece called “Mona Lisa”. It sold for an annualized return of 32% to everyone that bought shares of it.
Which was a better return than the S&P 500 in the same time period!
So I’m excited about art investing.
It’s a great long-term investment that’s uncorrelated from the stock market. This basically means that no matter what happens in the financial markets, the art market stays relatively unshaken.
What I Bought
I bought a piece* by a prominent Italian post-war era artist named Lucio Fontana.
I invested in it for 2 reasons:
- He’s dead. Dead artists’ work are more likely to appreciate due to scarcity (He’s not creating anymore).
- Apparently, super rich art-buyers love buying red pieces (The color goes well with most home decors)
The guy who onboarded me said it’s a great, conservative first investment.
I’m definitely doing more of this over the next ten years.
*If you’re curious, the piece I invested in is from this 1965 collection.