About a month ago I was watching a Caspian Report video and it contained an advert for a company called Masterworks. Masterworks is basically an investment platform that allows people to buy shares in works of art. I saw the promo and thought "Hmm, that's an interesting idea.." then continued on watching the video.
Then about a week ago I saw another advert pop up online, this time one for Sotheby's. I was on a message board that was discussing Russian shares, so I'm guessing some of the people frequenting those boards, unlike me, actually have the money to buy fine art. Though the advert algorithm got my tastes correct, if not my income bracket, as it was an auction for this painting that grabbed my attention:
(The Madonna of the Cherries
- workshop of Joos van Cleve)
I really love this painting, so I was curious to see how much it was selling for. The estimate was £60,000 - £80,000. In the end it sold for £100,800.
When I initially saw £60,000 I thought "Wow, I'd definitely buy that if I was a multi-millionaire." I expected it to be a lot more. It's a beautiful painting.
Anyway, that in turn reminded me of the Masterworks advert I'd seen earlier. My thinking being that perhaps I could buy shares in one of these Northern Renaissance type artworks that I like so much. Having looked I think it's a little early for me to be attempting to invest in art - I'm still barely getting to grips with the world of regular shares. However, it did send me down a big rabbit hole.
I spent some time reading about Masterworks, and watching videos about it, and I've came to the conclusion that this is going to become HUGE. I really think this will be the next big thing in investing over the next decade or so. It's such an enormous untapped market. If they can succeed in making shares in artwork as accessible to regular investors as general stock market shares are - and as liquid - then it'll be really exciting. It will also potentially change how we fund and invest in culture.
It's not hard to imagine a world where galleries sell shares in artworks they own to raise capital. Just as companies sell a percentage of their company publicly on stock markets to raise capital.
I'll never be able to own the Mona Lisa, but if I'm offered the chance to own $50 worth of shares in it that would be cool - and probably quite a sound investment. Especially if I knew I could sell those shares just as easily on the same stock market I bought them on.
I don't think the French would be too keen on an Englishman owning the Mona Lisa, even if it was just $50 worth, but still, I'm sure they'd be tempted to use such a method to raise money for the national coffers. Particularly if it meant they could sell just 10% publicly and keep the controlling 90%.
And it wouldn't just stop at paintings too. This can all potentially apply to statues, sculptures, books, manuscripts. Basically any cultural or historic artefact. Even perhaps buildings and landmarks. Maybe one day you'll be able to buy shares in Stonehenge.
Obviously creating systems that would allow this to happen is easier said than done, the potential is there though, and it seems Masterworks is already heading in that direction. I watched a few interviews with their CEO and he seems to very much appreciate the vista-like potential, so I'll be very interested to watch this over the next few years and see what happens.
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