Georgina Adam provides a rare and valuable glimpse into an art fund with some results from Gil Brandes of Artpartners who has made 30% on the sale of 5 works from his Artpartners fund which invested $9m with a 5yr horizon. (Adam doesn’t make it clear whether the 30% return is based upon the $9m total or the purchase price of the five works sold.)

“We did well on two [Haruki] Murakamis, [Rudolf] Stingel, [John] Chamberlain and in a small way on Cindy Sherman,” says Brandes: “And we are hoping to do well on a [Donald] Judd. But we have taken hits on a Jonathan Meese sculpture, a Jack Pierson, a Franz West and Anselm Reyle.” The worst case, not surprisingly, was a large Damien Hirst butterfly piece that the fund bought for $1.5m, now being resold for just $1m.

Artpartners is raising a second fund that will invest $25m over 10 years according to Adam.

The Art Market: Top of the Charts (Financial Times)