Anyone who enters the market spurred by recent auction records, hoping for a quick and profitable resale within a few months, is almost always disappointed. Unlike a financial security, a work of art has no daily price, sales take a long time and its future value remains unpredictable.

Before buying: history, quality and documentation

Anyone making a significant purchase with the help of an advisor should be protected from the risk of a wrong purchase. That protection does not come from price forecasts but from a careful analysis of the work before purchase, in three areas:

  • History: the provenance, changes of ownership, exhibitions and literature.
  • Quality: the work's place in the artist's career, its date and its state of conservation.
  • Documentation: registration with the artist's archive or foundation, inclusion in the catalogue raisonné, certificates and purchase documents, all verified.

This is the due diligence that should precede every purchase: a work with a clear history and documentation in order will find a buyer more easily on the day it is resold.

Value over time

That a work of art gains value over the years is possible, but never a given. When an important work is acquired, its exhibition history can be built up over the long term, for example through carefully chosen loans to museum exhibitions. Every exhibition and every publication adds to the work's history: these are processes measured in years, not months. It should be remembered, however, that an artist's market can go through periods of stagnation that do not depend on the quality of the work, but on changes in taste and trends.

Not chasing trends

For this reason it is advisable to avoid purchases driven by the trends of the moment or by what everyone else is buying. The price of a fashionable work reflects a passing interest, which can change quickly. Choosing a work for its quality and its history is the soundest way to preserve its value over time.

Anyone offering works of art with promises of certain returns or a buy-back at a fixed date is offering something foreign to collecting: proposals of this kind should be assessed with one's own financial adviser, in the context of one's overall wealth.