Tours of Sotheby's new New York gallery spaces have begun; Athena Art Finance has been sold to YieldStreet; Visit Art Cologne virtually with Vernissage TV; Early Art Cologne sales.
This commentary by Marion Maneker is available to AMMpro subscribers. (The first month of AMMpro is free and subscribers are welcome to sign up for the first month and cancel before they are billed.)
Athena Sold For Portfolio Value
The long-rumored sale of Athena Art Finance has finally been announced in the Financial Times today. The buyer is a new platform for wealthy individuals to find greater yield for their money.
The business was sold for $170m or the value of the loan book. The FT also reveals that the firm had made $225m in loans over its four-year lifespan. Art loans run for a short duration. So these numbers tell us that Athena had a long ramp to build a portfolio. At $170m the firm was surely behind plan but accelerating in loan volume.
One issue was surely educating the art market, especially dealers, to use the capital locked up in their inventory more wisely. Another was most likely the low interest rate environment which means there have been a number of different ways for art market participants to fund their businesses. Collectors also have too many other ways to raise funds that would make asset-backed art loans an item low on an action list when looking for shorter-term cash.
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