Beautiful Asset: Art as Investment

12 Pages Posted: 5 Nov 2010

See all articles by Jianping Mei

Jianping Mei

Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business

Michael Moses

Art Market Consultancy

Date Written: 2005

Abstract

For centuries, wealthy individuals and institutions have collected and consumed art for aesthetic pleasure. While anecdotal evidence suggests that some artworks have appreciated in value over time, few studies have documented investment returns in art systematically. In this article, we demonstrate that art could be an important asset class in many respects, worthy of addition to the long-term investment portfolios of individuals and institutions. Because individual works of art are not securitized, studying the value of works of art from financial sources is not possible. Gallery or direct-from-artists prices tend not to be reliable or easily obtainable. Auction prices, however, are reliable and publicly available. As a result, auction prices can be used as the basis for a database for determining the change in value of art objects over various holding periods.

JEL Classification: G11, G12

Suggested Citation

Mei, Jianping and Moses, Michael, Beautiful Asset: Art as Investment (2005). Journal of Investment Consulting, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 45-51, 2005, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1702419

Jianping Mei

Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business ( email )

1017, Oriental Plaza 1
No.1 Dong Chang'an Street
Beijing
China
010-81588858 (Phone)
100738 (Fax)

Michael Moses (Contact Author)

Art Market Consultancy ( email )

20 WEST 64TH STREET
APT 26K
NEW YORK, NY 10023
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.stern.nyu.edu/om/faculty/moses/

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
465
Abstract Views
3,892
Rank
99,448
PlumX Metrics