Collecting and investing

In a well-diversified portfolio, 4 to 8 per cent is the usual recommendation. Among the wealthiest collectors (UHNWI), however, art can easily account for 30 to 50 per cent. What is right for you depends on your relationship to risk — and on how much pleasure art brings you.

A realistic return is around 6 to 8 per cent a year, and 10 to 20 per cent for blue chip works — but with no guarantees. Count on a long horizon: 10 to 15 years or more for contemporary art, and from roughly five years for modern and post-war art. Art is a long-distance run, not a sprint.

It is the co-ownership of a single work by several people: you buy a share, not the whole canvas. It lowers the barrier to entry, opens the market to a younger generation and is its fastest-growing segment. For a great many people it is the first step towards a collection of their own.

Above all forgeries; poor liquidity (you may not manage to sell a work to whom and when you want); trend-driven demand, which can evaporate; and the risk attached to an artist who stops working or dies young. We do not want to put you off — we want to equip you. Anyone who knows the risks decides better than someone who believes art always goes up.