The Washington Post ran a Bloomberg piece on Sunday entitled Wealthy Snap Up Art, Other Collectibles in Low-Return Times. I see this as good news for appraisers as high net worth individuals (HNWIs) continue to look for alternative investments such fine and decorative arts. The article states the world's millionaires are now devoting an average of 9.6% of their assets to non financial investments such as collectibles.
Much of the statistics from the article come from a Barclays Wealth Insights report called Profit or Pleasure? Exploring the Motivations Behind Treasure Trends, a 50 plus page report on HNWIs investing in treasure assets. The report has some interesting information about HNWIs and their collecting habits. It has a good info graphic on what alternative assets HNWIs invest and what the percentage is. For example, in the US, HNWIs have 9% of their assets in "treasure", and the main categories are antique furniture, fine art and jewelry.
To download and read the full Barclays Wealth Insight report, click HERE (50+ pages and nearly 6 mb). This is an excellent report in understanding how, where and why HNWIs invest in alternative assets. I have just printed it out and plan on reading over the next couple of days. What I believe to be a real positive for appraisers is that now many major banks and financial institutions, such as Barclays report and accounting firms such as Deloitte (click HERE for the AW Post and link to a whitepaper on art and banking) are now paying much more attention to the collecting habits of HNWI.
The Washington Post reports on the trend
Source: The Washington Post
The world’s millionaires are devoting an average of 9.6 percent of their fortunes to nonfinancial assets like collectibles, a new survey by Barclays Wealth shows. Nearly every category of “treasure assets” attracted new buyers in the past five years. The poll of 2,000 people with investable assets of $1.5 million or more, conducted by Ledbury Research, found that 49 percent of respondents own fine art pictures and paintings, up 8 points from 2007. Also drawing a trove of new collectors were precious jewelry, antique furniture, precious metals, wine, rugs, sculptures, classic autos and coins.
The eye-popping sale results may stimulate more buying. “Because we’re in a low-return environment, people view art as a good place to park money,” says Marion Maneker, publisher of Art Market Monitor.
Just as Americans overspent on homes in the past decade, lovers of art, wine and other collectibles may be mistaking the fun of treasure hunting for a smart investment, says Christopher Didier, managing director at Robert W. Baird & Co.’s private asset management group. As prices go up, such “investments” can seem like no-brainers, he says. Then, invariably, someone kills the music and turns up the lights. “Reality hits,” he says.
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