The Role of Art & Antique Dealers An Added Value
Many of the top collectors today are very similar to the patrons of the arts in the market’s early history, however, instead of titled noblemen and religious dignitaries, the current top buyers tend to be high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals, many of whom have made their fortunes in industries that are entirely unrelated to the art and antiques market.
The geographical distribution of wealth has affected the nationalities of buyers, particularly at the top end. The emergence of new global buyers in the international art market from countries such as China, Russia and the Middle East has been driven primarily by economic factors, and specifically by the increasing wealth of their populations. In 2009, the Asia Pacific region surpassed Europe in terms of high net worth population numbers, and remains only second to North America in terms of wealthy inhabitants. China has seen particularly rapid expansion, and in 2008 replaced the UK as the country with the fourth largest high net worth population. The number of millionaires in China also expanded a further 31% over 2009.18
Many of these
newly wealthy individuals are art buyers and spend a significant proportion of their income on “investments of passion” including art and antiques.
Apart from geography, some dealers noted that that wealth has become much more polarised at the top end in the last decade, with the super-wealthy remaining as the primary buyers in the market after the recessionary period from 2007 to 2009. The upper middle class has not been able to keep pace with the wealthiest buyers, and therefore the middle of the art market has been the worst affected by the most recent financial crisis.
Art buyers have much more varied motives for collecting today than 50 years ago, and these include interest in art and antiques as an investment.
Dealers have noticed that although many collectors are still driven by a desire to collect art for its own sake, there are many more who are interested in its investment benefits, and who are increasingly concerned with how art can work for them financially as an asset. Motivations have shifted over time from simply those of collecting for interest, passion, and prestige, to considerations of returns, risk and portfolio balance.
Many dealers distinguished what they termed their “old collectors” versus “new buyers”. The former, which were dealers’ main clients 30 to 40 years ago, were more single-minded collectors - driven purely by the desire to collect art for its own sake with a high level of knowledge and connoisseurship. These collectors tended to buy one or few categories of art or antiques, and would be often interested in purchasing several examples of similar works or pieces within that genre. As a rule, they tended to buy and hold pieces and were averse to selling them, unless they no longer fitted with the rest of their collections.
18
Capgemini/ Merrill Lynch (2010) World Wealth Report 2010. From
www.capgemini.com. Historical & Future Perspectives 53
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