Investing in art

DEBORAH BLASHKI-MARKS INTERVIEWS ART DEALER ANNA GRODEN

AFTER working in commercial art galleries, auction houses and public museums in Australia and the UK, I established ANG Art Consulting in 2005, where I am the art consultant, dealer and valuer.

I have to say that following some very poor efforts in high school, I quickly realised that being an artist was not for me. But I have always loved art and I am much happier buying, selling and researching art and interacting with clients who have a similar passion.

I enjoy the process of making a shidduch between my buying and selling clients. It really is like matchmaking and it is a great feeling when I pair people with artworks that are, in effect, representations of their own tastes, styles and personalities.

Every sale or acquisition I broker is a success. When I go back and revalue my clients’ collections after a few years and revisit some of the wonderful pieces I’ve had the opportunity to sell, it is very rewarding.

I’ve seen some amazing collections over the years with examples of seminal works that chart the history and development of Australian art. One of the most exciting was a house filled with Norman Lindsays -— oil paintings of all sizes, with the original gilt frames hand-carved by Lindsay in the ’30s, watercolours, pencil drawings, you name it -— this client had grown up with the Lindsay family and had acquired this absolute treasure trove of Lindsay’s work, which would have been at home in a museum.

Art prices have been on a long-term upward trend since art became a tradeable commodity, resulting in returns that are comparable with shares and other investments.

Such tremendous growth has brought an increasing fascination with the art market and the way that it works. Collectors today vary from the young enthusiast who ventures $100 for a painting by an unknown artist, to the connoisseur who will pay millions of dollars for a work by a blue-chip painter such as Frederick McCubbin or Brett Whiteley. There are in fact more people collecting art now than in any other period in history.

Generally, collectors invest five to 10 per cent of their capital in their art collections. Most financial advisers will tell you that a good investment portfolio is a diversified one — people may own some property and may play the stock market — but as they also have many blank walls at home that need decoration, it seems logical to incorporate art into their investment portfolio.

The difference between art and other investments such as shares is that art is something you can appreciate, that is tactile and visual, as opposed to numbers on paper. A market for art exists because most people take pleasure in possessing beautiful objects.

There are different avenues through which to acquire art — galleries, auction houses and dealers such as myself, and through these one can form a broad and interesting collection.

But I have to say, enjoy it! Art is there to give us pleasure and also to challenge us; it makes us think. It is a visual medium that is shrouded in history, politics, contemporary tastes and styles. I have a Patricia Picininni photograph with her mutated human/mole-like life form sitting in a car and it is a huge talking point for people coming to my home. Many don’t get it or find it ugly or see no value in it. However, I know it has value on one level because I paid for it!

It is my job to pair buyers and sellers with quality artworks that they both love and that will offer a good return over time. But it is not just about investment — it has to largely be about what you love and what you enjoy living with and there are more than enough artworks out there to tick both boxes. Budget dictates the artist, size and medium, but when it comes to contemporary art, and there is a lot of it out there, what I personally seek as a buyer is originality. I don’t want to buy something new that I have seen before.