1935

There are a few collectors, perhaps, who collect from a sheer love of the beautiful, but the majority undoubtedly now regard the money expended on their collections as so much invested capital.

[W. G. Menzies, 1935, 'Collecting as an Investment']

Fun with funds

Do you have some spare money you'd like to invest in art? Next to the Fine Art Fund, some new possibilities are popping up. The Vienna-based hedge fund company Sharpe Investments has an investment fund called Sharpe Art and an Italian fund manager is launching a new 150 million art fund, together with Simon De Pury.

"The art market did not suffer repercussions when the Internet bubble burst and it is doing extremely well today, even after the credit crunch," said Robert Tomei, chief executive of the Italian fund manager Advanced Capital, who is starting his third art fund.

The Tomei Advanced Capital Art Fund, run with the art dealer Simon de Pury of Phillips de Pury, will focus on contemporary art, photography and design and hopes to replicate the 20 percent annual returns he achieved with past funds.

Investment, not art

An update on yesterday's story. Apparently, Damien Hirst is part of the investment group that bought his diamond skull for about 100 million USD.

The sale keeps Hirst in the news, reinforces the demand for his work and makes everyone who spent money at White Cube feel good about their investment. This is all about investment, not about art collecting.