Collecting Art for Pleasure vs. Buying Art as an Investment

Buying art is usually seen as an investment, and researching the art market is often compared to researching property for sale. This view, however, leaves out the very human pleasure derived from viewing and experiencing art. The question is thus “should buying art be for investment purposes, or should it be for the sake of art itself?” Art in all of its forms are unique representations of a world seen through someone else’s eyes. It’s a record that is kept visually about what’s going on in society or what’s going on in someone’s mind at that particular time. It can be a painting, a sculpture, a performance or a poem, among only a few examples. However when it comes to collecting and buying art, it is usually something visual that you can see and touch, in particular paintings and sculptures.

Collecting art for pleasure is more personal than buying art as an investment. This is because of human nature and your personal preferences to art. What you find beautiful may not necessarily be what others find beautiful and due to this, it may not make for a good investment in a whole. That said investing in art in general is a very speculative investment and could ruin a person if they don’t know what they are doing. The potential risk involved when buying art to try and make a profit off of it is not necessarily a path most people would choose, because it is such a gamble and because many people don’t have the knowledge when it comes to buying and selling art to make a profit. However, as with all investments, there are certain things to know and adhere to, if for some reason you do want to buy art to have a turnaround after selling it:

• Don’t buy art because you want to sell it, buy it because it’s beautiful.
• Art is subject to change due to taste and “fashion” and are “high-risk” investments.
• Never put more than 10%-15% of the value of your investment portfolio into art, otherwise you might not get the turnaround profit you expected and in turn it might ruin you financially. Additionally, remember to buy insurance for the pieces you collect as they could be stolen or destroyed.

Stories have accumulated over the years of people who picked up art for cost-price only to make millions of dollars off of them later on, but these cases are far and few in between. It’s still a speculative market and although art is beautiful and may be a good investment to some, it is not for everyone.

Keeping the above points in mind and then thinking about collecting art for pleasure, it’s a whole different deal. When collecting art for pleasure, be it a sculpture, a painting or an antique that was crafted by some amazing unknown carpenter, it’s for your personal enjoyment and should there be a value placed to the piece, it should not be the first thing you see when buying it. Personal taste is the main factor that will come into play when collecting art for pleasure; it’s bought as a “conversation starter” or inspiration or merely for the aesthetic qualities in it.

Due to the popularity of art and antiques lately though, with shows such as “Antique Roadshow”, “Pawn Stars” and the numerous other television shows that has become so popular as of late, both art collecting for personal purposes as well as buying art for investment purposes have skyrocketed. There is however a difference. This difference is mainly seen as a gamble of sorts. So realise what you want and research your options carefully, before you become “artistically blocked” financially.