Investing in Prints

Kishore Singh of the Business Standard has an article on investing in prints.  Singh goes on to explain rather simply what a print is, the ease of investing in prints and also some of the pitfalls.  The article is more specific to the market in India, but much applies to the overall market for prints as well.  Well worth reading.

Singh states

India has excellent printmakers devoted exclusively to the medium — Chittaprosad and Haren Das among the masters, Anupam Sud and Pratibha Dakoji in recent times — but in public perception at least, there seems still to be some hesitation in accepting their work as having investment potential.

It is only recently, with prices having consolidated, that art promoters have turned to it as yet another medium. Even dealers have turned to newer technologies, such as serigraphs, the process of silk screening a print in the closest approximation of a painting in its original colours, with the blessings of the artist, who both numbers and signs each such edition, making it a collectible.

It is clear from the process that the resulting print is affordable for those with fewer means at their disposal, but can it be an investment? Mostly, gallery owners tend to be dismissive since keeping a few sets of fine art prints amidst an inventory of original art is more likely to be a liability than an opportunity.

But with specialist studios, the story is a little different. Before the boom in the art market collapsed, serigraph prints had just been introduced in the Indian market, and prices rose sharply even before all the editions had sold out, leading to accusations of market manipulation — in truth, it was price manipulation — despite which people queued up to buy them. But even that became justified when a portfolio of Jehangir Sabavala editions acquired at a cost of Rs 9,90,000 (approximately £12,000) by an investor in 2007 was auctioned by Bonham’s six months later for £32,000. At the Khushii auction in Mumbai the following year, the Sabavala serigraphs found bidders at a platform reserved for high art.

To read the full Business Standard article, click HERE.