The Financial Times’s How to Spend It has the latest twist in the art and property tale. London developers are staging their homes with art then selling the art as an additional item when the deal closes:

Some developers, particularly those whose multi-homed clientele can be too busy to concern themselves with everyday detail, will offer the art that hangs on the walls during the sale process. Ben Wilson, co-founder and director of Residence One, for example, creates just-unpack-your-bags homes for high-net-worth high-flyers and has, by default, become something of an art dealer. “In order to finish our properties, we borrow from galleries and include the work at a separate price. Houses like ours provide an ideal showcase to display art to a targeted audience. In a high-end purchase, too, the cost of the art will seem less significant than if the work is shown independently.” At a recently completed house in Eccleston Mews, Residence One sold the carefully selected art for £40,000, on top of the sale price of £6.25m. Meanwhile, its Grade II-listed townhouse (£14.25m through Savills) in Belgravia’s Wilton Street features a further £120,000 of painting and sculpture.

Properties with art at their heart (How To Spend It)