Is the Art Risk Trade Back On?

PBS’s Nightly Business Report delves into the art market. Echoing the reporting on the financial markets, some are suggesting a renewed risk trade in art. Whether that’s a real assessment or just a function of the media generating a story from random anecdotes remains to be seen:

YASTINE: For gallery owners it’s a little bit better too. There were plenty of buyers in the crowds returning to (INAUDIBLE) Miami Beach. Sales were up an estimated 15 percent. Lucy Mitchell-Innes sees the change in attitude among the people who visit her Manhattan galleries.

LUCY MITCHELL-INNES, DIRECTOR, MITCHELL-INNES & NASH: It’s not so much that the economy has completely rebounded. It’s that people have maybe adapted to it. And they also feel that they can now budget and work things out and also if you’re really devoted to collecting art, there’s only so long you’re going to sit on the sidelines before the temptation is just too great.

YASTINE: Of course, art is in the eye of the beholder. A Napoleonic Michael Jackson and sculptural commentaries on the SUV aren’t always on the top of everyone’s buy list. But collector and money manager Marshall Front says the fact that people are buying again is a good sign.

MARSHALL FRONT, CHMN., FRONT BARNETT ASSOCIATES LLC: It does give an indication I think that people are beginning to quote, come out of their shells unquote. You’ve seen it in the equity market. You’ve seen it in the junk bond market and now you’re seeing it the art market, collectibles, gold and so forth and so on. People are moving toward a riskier trade than they would have 10 months or a year ago.

Art Investments Are Getting Chic Again (Nightly Business Report)