Is art a good investment? Why now is the moment to buy

Art is one of the few assets that pays you twice. It is a scarce physical object rather than a claim on one, priced by conviction rather than by interest rates, and it earns its keep on the wall every single day it is held. No other line in a portfolio does that.

The window matters as much as the asset. The speculative money that crowded the market in 2021 has gone, but buyers have not — transaction numbers are rising. That combination, calm rooms and active demand, is the environment in which the best collections have always been assembled.

The Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report puts global art and antiques sales at $64.4bn in 2019, $50.1bn in the pandemic year of 2020, $65.1bn in 2021, $67.8bn in 2022, $65.0bn in 2023 and $57.5bn in 2024. Read as a headline, the last figure looks like a retreat. Read properly, it is an invitation.

The 2024 dip came entirely from the top of the market, where fewer eight-figure works were consigned. Underneath it, the number of transactions rose. More people bought art in 2024 than the year before. For anyone building a holding between £5,000 and £50,000, that is the single most encouraging statistic in the report: deep demand, no bidding frenzy, and sellers who will talk.

The market has done the hard part for you. Prices at the accessible end have already absorbed their correction, so a buyer entering now is starting from a base rather than from a peak.

Holding a work costs roughly one to two per cent of its value a year, covering insurance, transport, conservation and proper storage. It is a modest figure for an asset you live with, and for the works we place we arrange all of it, so the practical side never becomes your problem.

Art is a considered market rather than a fast one, and that is a feature. Because a sale is planned rather than panicked, prices are set by the strength of the work and the timing of the right sale, not by a screen moving against you at nine in the morning. Collectors who plan their exit rather than react to one are the collectors who do well.

The rest is paperwork, and paperwork is entirely within your control. Invoice, certificate, condition report and clean provenance from day one are what turn a good purchase into a straightforward sale years later. We keep that record for every work we place.

Blue-chip names are priced for their reputation, which makes them reliable rather than exciting. The asymmetry sits one step earlier: original works by artists with genuine curatorial backing whose prices have not yet caught up with their standing. That is where a £6,000 purchase becomes a £30,000 holding.

The signals are readable if you know where to look — group shows with serious curators, a first solo with a gallery that builds careers, a museum acquisition, a residency, and an artist disciplined enough not to flood their own market. This is the work we do every week, and it is why our clients buy earlier than the crowd rather than after it.

Buy quality within an artist's output rather than simply buying the name. A major work by a rising artist will almost always outperform a minor work by a famous one, and it will be the better thing to own in the meantime.

Held for a full cycle at five to ten per cent of investable assets, bought with proper advice and documented from the first day, art has earned its place in serious portfolios — and the current market is handing new collectors the sort of entry point that usually only appears once a decade.

The test is straightforward. Buy work you would be glad to own if the market stood still, bought at a price that stands up against live comparables, from someone who will still be there when you sell. Do that and time is on your side. We will show you exactly what is available at your level and what it should cost.