It’s the eternal quest of the Contemporary art market: buy the big name from his or her graduate show. Ever since Charles Saatchi started buying graduate work in bulk, British newspapers have run a regular story during each year’s graduate shows. Here’s the Telegraph‘s version:

“Now is the perfect time to invest in graduate art,” said Sarah Ryan of NewBloodArt.com, an online shop for original art by emerging artists. “The market has been deflated over the past couple of years and there has been a cautiousness. If you buy now you will see values go up significantly over the next two or three years.”

Indeed, even with the current dampening of prices, there have been some graduate artists been revealed as real money makers in this field.

Josie McCoy, famed for her stylised paintings of predominantly female portraits, graduated from Central Saint Martins with a Fine Art MA in 1999.

If you had been lucky enough to pick up a McCoy at her graduate show a 40cm x 40cm oil on canvas would have cost £250. Now, it would worth 10 times that amount. You can read more about the artist and view her work at www.josiemccoy.co.uk.

Daisy Clarke graduated in 2008 from the Royal College of Art. At her graduate MA show a piece on paper was valued at £350, just two years later the same piece was sold for £900 – an increase of 150pc.

Still life artist Shaun G Day has seen a 400pc increase in his work since he graduated a decade ago, and a 6ft x 4ft foot canvas by American multimedia artist Nathan James is now worth $25,000 compared to just $500 when he graduated eight years ago.

Graduate Art: Make an Art of Your Investments (Telegraph)